SECTION 10: Indigenous
The Cobbon Aboriginal
Boomerang and Murrurundi Critic
June 1875
Tune Fine Old English Gentleman
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Fragment
June 1876 issue
Quotes this 'traditional ballad'
Skulls on skulls, and limbs on limbs,
Yea, ''twas an awful sight
To see the spot where blackmen fell,
And perished in the fight;
King, chieftain, slave alike succumb,
The yells rise fierce and strong,
Too New South Wales!
The creek all ran with blood
That day at bleak Wagong.
The Buffalo Shooters Song
From 'Tales of a Big Country' 1972 Cooktown.
Tune: Galway bay
Oh the girls come down from Oenpelli Mission
They're wrapped up in the bible when they come
But they'll soon forget about those Ten Commandments
When you hit them with a snort o OP rum.
A Cannibal Feast
Adelaide Observer
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ABORIGINAL SONGS
Taken from The Australian Aboriginal by Roland Robinson and Douglas Baglin who quote that it was a popular ditty in country towns. I suspect this is from Dougie Young, Wilcannia, as several of his 1950s songs gained wide circulation.
Beer
Beer is all froth and bubble
Whiskey will make you moan
Plonk is another name for trouble
But the metho is out on its own.
 From Bill Harney to Nancy Keesing 24/3/53
And included in the correspondence files of the Keesing papers
Mitchell Library.
Bill Harney was a legend of the Outback.
He was a familiar face to many Northern Territory Aborigines who accepted him as a brother. Harney wrote several books on the Outback. He sent these two ditties to Katherine Brisbane when she (and Doug Stewart) were working on their version of 'Old Bush Songs'.
Harney could never be described as 'racist' and particularly in regard to indigenous Australians. He saw these ditties as amusements and
that they were shared by the northern indigenous people.
note: Also refer Bawdy Section for more Bill Harney material
Parody -
Home on the Range
Offtimes at night with the stars shining bright, I hear that old didjeredu (sic)
And my thoughts seem to stray, for I can't keep away, from the girls that are easy to woo, and do.
Chorus:
Home, home on the range where the gins and the young quweis play
And man was supplied with a girl as a bride and the old river flowed on its way.
I Like to Love
Tune: Redwings
(If You Only Knew What the Redmen do
to make poor Redwing cry')
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