An Australian Folk Song A Day: Bound For Darling Harbour

Friday, September 16, 2011

Bound For Darling Harbour

Merv Lilley

Northern Queensland is my home,
Fire away, fire away
Northern Queensland is my home,
We're bound for Darling Harbour
Fire away, fire away
Fire away, you stokehole crew
We're bound for Darling Harbour

Queensland mills are crushing now,
Raw sugar stacked up to the bow

Down that deep and gloomy hole
A thousand tons of Bowen coal

Coal burning ships have seen their day
Oil is here and come to stay

Our hearts are sad, our hearts are sore
To see old firemen left ashore

Our ships will sail inland one day
To float the nations goods away

Now fare you well and fare you well
A last farewell to the stokehole hell.

Published as "A new song to an old shanty tune" in Singabout, Volume 1, Number 1, Summer 1956.

The illustration to this post is from Bonzle.com and shows cargo being loaded in Townsville in 1910.

The Idea

This blog was inspired by John Boden's "Folk Song A Day" blog, featuring mostly unaccompanied renditions of English folk songs.

I thought that Australia Day was a good time to start an Australian version*. While some of the songs will be previously-recorded songs, most will be recorded for this blog. I plan to use a variety of arrangement styles and recording approaches. While I will attempt to record versions of these songs which are pleasant to listen to, this is more of an archiving project than a recording venture.

I'm hoping that this will be a site where new and old songs can be gathered and where the visitors to the site will share in the rich history and texture of the lovely conglomeration that is Australian traditional song.

*Australia Day is January 26. My blog accounts time was set to UK time when I started the blog. This explains why the first entry is now marked January 27. Changing the time in February is also the reason there are 29 entries for February. You can't have too much of a good thing!