The Basic Wage Dream

Don Henderson



I dreamed a doctor told a judge from the Arbitration Court
That he would only live to preside on one more case being fought.
The judge whose conscience was ill at ease thought if this case will be my last,
To hand down a fair decision might make up for his unjust past.

The next case that was to come before this very worried sage,
Was a request to raise by fifty-two bob the weekly basic wage.
The old chap granted the raise in full and to assure his place in heaven,
Made the payments retrospective to nineteen hundred and seven.

On the first pay day after the trial I couldn't believe my luck,
The paymaster brought my wages out on a fork lift truck,
I dreamed we got paid on a Friday and on that lovely night,
Mayne Nickless sent an armoured car to get me home all right.

On the way we stopped at the R.S.L. and as I walked inside,
A poker machine took a look at my pay and committed suicide.
I turned around when I heard a man behind me softly speak,
It was Dr. Coombs trying to borrow a quid to see him through the week.

The alarm went off and I recalled as I was waking up,
How people dream they saw the horse that won the Melbourne Cup,
But they can't remember what number it was, well my dream was just the same
For I can't for the very life of me think of that judge's name.

Another great song from the pen of one of the Australian folk movement's most prolific and powerful songwriters.

The Westgate Bridge Disaster

Don Henderson




Come gather round me people.
Come and hear my every word.
I'll sing a song of sorrow
and pray I may be heard.
I'll sing a song of sorrow,
a story sad to tell,
of men who died on the Westgate Bridge,
when a steel span broke and fell.

Oh, there was need for hurrying,
for work was well behind,
but Milford Haven's memory
was vivid in our minds.
Some sections had been strengthened;
which, in part, our fears allayed,
and we were told the Westgate Bridge
was the safest ever made.

The first span on the western bank
was assembled on the ground.
Assembled in two lengthwise halves,
this method was thought sound.
Assembled in two lengthwise halves,
beside the river wide,
And raised on high by mighty jacks,
to be laid up side by side.

To the eleventh pylon,
extended from the tenth,
the two halves laid up side by side,
to be joined along their length;
and this was the work in progress,
upon that fateful day,
when a steel span broke in the Westgate Bridge
and the pylon fell away.

Oh all three hundred and seventy five
long feet from end to end,
sixteen hundred tons of steel
began to shake and bend.
On the fifteenth of October,
it was just before midday,
when a steel span broke in the Westgate Bridge
and the pylon fell away.

From far across the river,
so terrible to hear,
and in our eyes for ever more
that vision will be seared.
The seconds passed like hours
as our tiny ferry sped and,
in that long and helpless age,
many silent prayers were said.

The scene that then confronted us
was tangled death on fire;
that stripped away all fear of harm
and strength was else inspired.
For while hope flew high in our hearts,
our minds were sick with dread.
Beneath that wreck of twisted steel,
thirty five good men lay dead.

Dear God, in Your great mercy.
He who sees each sparrow fall;
look down upon our sorrow,
give guidance to us all.
Look kindly on our comrades,
who died here on this day,
when a steel span broke in the Westgate Bridge
and the pylon fell away.


On 15 October, 1970, 35 men died when a section of Melbourne's Westgate Bridge collapsed while under construction.

All I Want

Don Henderson





All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down
I just want to feel my feet set firmly on the ground
The captain's mad
The judge is sad
Politician is a clown
All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down

The captain in the charting room, moving coloured pins
He clears the board, the colours go to their respective tins
Then out again, to tell the men,
The neatest army wins
All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down

The judge with his presumption, his gavel and his wig
Enacts the farce of justice, stars as mr big
A different cast, the sentence passed, then onto another gig
All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down

The elected politician, asleep in parliament
Expresses thus the views of those he's come to represent
Record his snores, they're common cause
They even pay the rent
All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down

I was with a girl the other night, she looked into my eyes
And said, "do you believe in love?"
That was a surprise.
I said, "When I'm fed, I believe in bed. I'll tell to you no lies"
All I want is a little bit to eat and a place to lay me down


A classically simple piece from Don Henderson. The illustration is a painting of Campbell the Swaggie by Nicole Murray.

It's On

Don Henderson



A sad story you'll hear if you listen to me,
About two men who could never agree;
What one called white the other called black,
They'd argue a while then step out the back....

Chorus:
And it's on!
All reason and logic are gone!
Winning the fight won't prove that you're right,
It's sad, it's true, but it's on!

When it was over they'd come back and then
The argument would become heated again;
Who'd won the last round they couldn't decide'
Till one asked the other… would he step outside?

They'd been fighting so long that could neither recall
What in the first place had started it all?
But they kept at it day in and day out
Now they're fighting to see what they're fighting about.

Just you imagine if intellectuals
Came to agreement by Queensberry's rules!
It could easily be that the square root of four
Was fifteen less three plus a smack in the jaw.

And if governments think that it makes better sense
To save on education and spend on defence;
Could easily be argued, on the same grounds
That elections should be… the best of ten rounds!


A great Australian singer, songwriter, collector and commentator, Don Henderson was a regular at the 291 Folk Club in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley in the early 1980s. This is probably his best known song.