The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168402 Message #4088988
Posted By: rich-joy
20-Jan-21 - 05:43 PM
Thread Name: Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook
Subject: RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia
THE MEEKATHARRA GOLD MINER
Robert Pyper / trad
I’ve wandered all over this country, prospecting and digging for gold I’ve tunneled, hydraulic’d and cradled And I have been frequently sold, And I have been frequently sold Yes, I have lost all of my gold I’ve tunneled, hydraulic’d and cradled, And I have been frequently sold.
For those that get riches by mining, there’s thousands go out the back door But this time I hit the gold lining It set me for life, that’s for sure, It set me for life, that’s for sure (for sure, right!) It set me for life, that’s for sure This time I hit the gold lining, It set me for life, that’s for sure.
I got onto the prospect in Meeka, “The Pharlap” goldmine was its name The old guy that sold it’s a seeker With sixty-odd years at the game, With sixty-odd years at the game Yes, sixty-odd years full of shame The old guy that sold it’s a seeker, With sixty-odd years at the game.
He showed me the lode on the Sunday, six weights in the dish in the sun But after some beers on the Monday Three ounces or more could be won, Three ounces or more could be won (that’s the grog for you!) Three ounces or more could be won But after some beers on the Monday, Three ounces or more could be won.
He wanted ten grand for an option, three weights in the ton from gold won Another ten grand on adoption I signed with a loud cry of DONE! I signed with a loud cry of DONE! (done, all right!) I signed with a loud cry of DONE! Another ten grand on adoption, Well I signed with a loud cry of DONE!
I took the shaft down to twelve-fifty, and crosscut and drove miles around Till I tumbled that he was a swiftee The old guy had salted the ground, The old guy had salted the ground He’d spread bloody gold dust around! I tumbled that he was a swiftee, The old guy had salted the ground.
No longer the slave of ambition, a sucker for sharks and the shames I savour my happy condition Surrounded by my barren claims, Surrounded by my barren claims Surrounded by my barren claims I savour my happy condition, Surrounded by my barren claims. (spoken) And they’re as free of gold as a frog is from feathers!
Tune : “Acres of Clams” - also used for the well-known song “The Catalpa”.
Another song from one of Australia’s “Singing Geologists”, Robert Pyper. He is a recorded singer of classical songs, but includes a CD of Australian Ballads and is also an author of 4 novels : www.robertpyper.com.au
“To the tune Acres of Clams the song describes the pitfalls that await the new chum when he moves from panning alluvial gold to mining the hardrock. Set in Meekatharra in WA during the gold boom of the 1930's we are back in the days of pennyweights rather than grams. There are 20 dwt as against 31 grams to the ounce of gold. Providing you were still in the weathered zone, the panning-off dish was used to estimate grade by crushing a sample of gold rock and then panning off the light rock to leave a tail of gold, the grade of which could be estimated almost as well as a formal assay. It is a feature of gold mining that the longer you are away from a prospect the better you remember it. Adjourning to the bar to talk about it can hasten the remembering greatly, which is what happens here. There were many ways to salt a mine -- witness Busang in the 1990's, which was the biggest gold deposit ever discovered yet it contained no gold. There wasn't much in the Pharlap gold mine either, but I made up the tongue in cheek words in memory of a great prospector I knew. The Pharlap was later mined out in a huge open cut.”