319. Travelling Down the Castlereagh (Banjo Paterson)

• Report rights infringement
• published: 29 Mar 2011
• views: 1661

This militant unionist ballad was written as a poem by the great Australian bush poet, Banjo Paterson, and published in the Bulletin in 1892 under the name "The Bushman's Song." It has been sung to various tunes, but this one, collected by John Manifold, is the most common. One of the main targets of union songs is the so-called "scab." A well-known description of a scab, often attributed (probably wrongly) to Jack London, once described scabs as follows: "After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and Angels weep in Heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out ... the modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation." In fact a lot of the "scabs" who broke the shearers' strikes were Chinese immigrants who came for the gold rush, and subsequently tried to earn a living however they could. In the interests of political correctness, the original line "nine or ten dashed Chinamen" was at some stage changed to "nine or ten non-union men." I first learnt this song when I was invited by Phil Cleary (well-known Australian footballer, writer and left-wing politician) to sing some songs to his History students. He supplied the songs, some of which I knew already, and I had to learn and sing them as part of a unit on Australian History. Apparently Ewan MacColl wrote "The Fitter's Song" to the tune of this song, but it must have been one of the other tunes, as it doesn't sound like this one. Lyrics and chords of this song can be found here: http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com/page/Travelling+Down+the+Castlereagh++%28Banjo+Patterson%29 You can see a playlist of my Australian songs here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0DE11C284435E7A2 For lyrics and chords of all my songs, please see my website: http://raymondfolk.wikifoundry.com