Moreton Bay

I recently purchased a CD of Australian folk songs. One of the standout songs on the CD was the old ballad, "Moreton Bay". The venom the singer, Marion Henderson, put in when mentioning Captain Logan was quite memorable.

I remember learning this in primary school during Music, when we also learned such old folk songs as Botany Bay, Waltzing Matilda, and The Wild Colonial Boy. I don't know what they learn in schools in these degenerate days - probably "Smack my b---h up" or "Hit me baby, one more time".

In any case, we learnt this not just because it was a memorable ballad, but because it spoke of the historical beginnings of Queensland, when it was just a penal settlement under the harsh rule of Patrick Logan.


Moreton Bay

One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters I chanced to stray
I heard a convict his fate bewailing
As on the sunny river bank I lay
"I am a native from Erin's island
But banished now from my native shore
They stole me from my aged parents
And from the maiden I do adore

I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie
At Norfolk Island and Emu Plains
At Castle Hill and at cursed Toongabbie
At all these settlements I've been in chains
But of all places of condemnation
And penal stations in New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal
Excessive tyranny each day prevails

For three long years I was beastly treated
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
My back from flogging was lacerated
And oft times painted with my crimson gore
And many a man from downright starvation
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
And Captain Logan he had us mangled
All at the triangles of Moreton Bay

Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
Till a native black lying there in ambush
Did deal this tyrant his mortal stroke
My fellow prisoners be exhilarated
That all such monsters such a death may find
And when from bondage we are liberated
Our former sufferings will fade from mind."