To the end of this world where the edges curl and you're falling
To have a look Jimmy Cook came calling
With the bright red coats and sails like ghostly warnings
Spied some smoke so dropped a boat that morning

But another man above the sand and water
Stood and watched with his sons and daughters
Who and how and why the kids kept asking
He said just run and tell your Mother that they've got white skin

They found her by the fire mixing ochre
She said you know your Dad he's always been a joker
But before they could return with their Mother
Their home their heart was claimed by another

Jim let off a shot just to see their fear and wonder
He knew the loudest sound they'd ever heard was thunder
But they just stood, how could they know the danger
Or see the coming days behind this stranger

Phillips sad and landless bag of prisoners
Left the shore and the royal claw of Windsor
Yeah, I know it wasn't their name they'd have to change it later
Auf Wiedersehen king crocodile hello king alligator

They settled into Sunday hymns and memories
But freedom is more than sung if you can make it past the sentries
And head for home into a killer summer
Or the blacks picked off the braver ones or dumber

Then cattle and sheep the squatter and thief moved westward
Over Blue mountain peaks with rivers beneath that ran red
But the way they saw it, it wasn't a war, it was progress
It was never said one more dead just one less

Then second-hand chains, poison and shame, and power
Cleared the plain turning scrub into grain and flour
Then the Sunday thing the church bell ring would follow
But unlike a bell truth won't ring if it's hollow

Some got the land, a little milk, but no honey
So they dropped everything and went digging for the heavy money
They'd come a long way with a shovel, pick, bucket and rope
And wound up blistered souls, living in holes and on hope

Of course, it never ends there the Queen wants her share of what's coming
You're put in your place while she wins the race without running
It's all about class, she just sits on her arse on a throne
It's called privilege of birth on this little old earth we call home

So at Bakery Hill, they said it's either be killed or be mastered
It had to be them or all her majesties men who lasted
But the way most saw it, it wasn't a war it was slaughter
Once again more fatherless sons and daughters

Then World war 1 took the sons to Europe
It's said aloud we should be proud we grew up
That on a beach below a cliff we stood tall
But those that lived to tell didn't say much at all

Then number 2 lived on through my Father
In an ugly world, he met a pretty girl my Mother
Then 5 little boys with guns for toys it's playtime
Pretend to be dead, and before bed, it's bath time

Yeah 3rd son born, a September storm, a big one
The next day Essendon lost the old mans cross to Melbourne
He never did say but he hoped we'd play and win one
Through the long white posts, we'd battle his ghosts and kick some

December 1 the summer sun sat higher
As cattle and sheep choked on smoke from the distant fire
While on a beach there was no cliff or dying
Just a cricket bat a ball and people frying

Well every morning it seemed we still bowed to a Queen of England
If we were lucky the rain, was a welcome refrain from singing
Then one day we found that Elizabeth's crown was shrinking
If we'd never belonged we'd have our own song and thinking

Then pretty soon Neil on the moon was walking
I was sitting crossed legged in a room full heads not talking
While Miss McCoy and this little boy sat breathless
She was thinking of Neil and I was thinking of her dressless

Well first there was Ned but he was dead so Gough came
To level the field that the well-heeled still claimed
But at whistling tunes for the Oval room, not good
I know it's a bit of a stretch but a drunken wretch called John could

Well biding my time 'til the sleeping mind was woken
Finishing school learning some rules should be broken
How many days in this kind of year ended
In discovering that the ways of the world can be unintended

I learned to swim and fish and kiss and shiver
And drink too much beside the Backbone river
Though always told you'll be this old forever
We kept risking life and limb to fit in better

I moved into town thinking up or down would be better
Then I lost everything to what heroin brings in from the gutter
No, it wasn't my veins that suffered the strain, I'm not that dumb
It was a friend and an enemy rolled up into one

I smashed through his door with a hammer and claw for a reason
To break every bone or everything in his home for thieving
And to retrieve a guitar full of grief and wires
But it wasn't there it was paying his fare for leaving

With a newer guitar and eyes full of stars I listened
To the sounds of this land and the Dollys that Molly christened
We all looked and wondered how far they'd get
Then looked again and they were gone with a head still wet

Well moving right along I guess it's my editorial power
It's either that or we'll be here for hours
But this is not so much a song, it's just some words and sounds
But otherwise, I'm going alright in this town.