THE POLE

(Song for Strangway's Station))

Lyrics and Music: Harry Robertson

Oh, I’ve stood in this land
With its saltbush and sand
Where the desert rolls north to the sky,
Watched the sun burning souls
Of the men with the poles
In the scrub-bush and bindi-eye.

Strangway’s buildings did grow
Where the cool springs do flow
And the bullocks and horses and men,
Fought the gibber and sand
With the long singing strand
How they feared it would never end.

I’ve seen how they dug rock
To build pens for the stock
Seen the hardship of building a nation,
How the women-less men
Cursed time and again
Building rooms for a telegraph station.

In this land stretching wide
How the people did hide
Behind solid walls built with their sweat,
Struggling hard to keep life
Against nature’s cruel knife
Vast Australia’s harsh challenge was met.

I am lonely alone
In my wild windy home,
And I see how the stations decay,
Twenty years then four score
I have stood by the door
Of the only ones out here today.

© Harry Robertson, and subsequently ©1995 Mrs Rita Robertson, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Registered with APRA-AMCOS www.apra-amcos.com.au