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Another Australian song about transportation, originally known as "The Convict's Lament on the Death of Captain Logan."
For those who don't know Australia's more...history, it began as a penal settlement for English (and Irish) criminals whose crimes were so petty that they managed to avoid being hanged. For example they may have stolen a loaf of bread to feed their family.
Moreton Bay, in Queensland, was one of the worst penal colonies. Between 1825 and 1830 it was run by Captain Patrick Logan, notorious for his cruel and sadistic treatment of the prisoners. Records kept by one of the prison clerks show that, from February to October in 1828, Logan ordered 200 floggings with over 11,000 lashes. He was killed by Aborigines in 1830 while he was surveying the Upper Brisbane river. When his body was brought back to Moreton Bay, it is reported that the convicts "manifested insane joy at the news of his murder, and sang and hoorayed all night, in defiance of the warders."
The origins of the song are unclear but it may well date back to the time of Logan's death. Bushranger Ned Kelly quoted some of the lines in his "Jerilderie Letter" of 1879. A bushranger, Jack Bradshaw, who wrote a "True History of the Australian Bushrangers" (1911) and "Twenty Years of Prison Life in the Gaols of NSW" attributed the song to Francis MacNamara (Frank the Poet), who spent years in various Australian penal settlements.
Like many Australian songs, this one uses a traditional Irish tune. It is a variation on "Boolavogue", a ballad written by Patrick Joseph McCall (1898) for the centenary of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
This song is on my first CD: "AXIS OF EVIL and other True Stories." less
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May 23, 08
By: raymondcrooke
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