When those shots resounded
Bodies lying on the bushland floor
They crossed a line and forever
Their name would be outlaw
Rev John McGarvie and The Exile of Erin
© Jim Low
In 1972 I purchased a copy of Alex Hood’s Boomerang Songster No 1, Australian Folk Songs. It contained songs from Alex’s LP recording The First Hundred Years, which included the song The Exile of Erin. This convict lament, its setting the foot of the Blue Mountains at Emu Plains, had caught my attention when I first heard Alex’s recorded version of it. There had been a penal settlement established at Emu Plains in Governor Macquarie’s term in office. In April 1827 there were over 134 convicts housed there.
As I started learning to sing Australian traditional folk songs, I made a point of including The Exile of Erin in my repertoire. Continue reading “Rev John McGarvie and The Exile of Erin”
The Exile of Erin (on the Plains of Emu)
The song appeared in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser on Tuesday 26 May 1829. Rev John McGarvie, the first Presbyterian Minister of the Ebenezer Church at Portland Head, was the author of The Exile of Erin. He wrote under various initials (M, A.B, C.D) and from what appear to be fictional places (Warrambamba, Marramatta, Anambaba).
A Sense of Place: Echoes of the Past
© Kelly Shaw
Recently we spent the day searching for a message from the past. Hundreds of years ago the Wiradjuri tribe had left their mark on the walls of an impressive area not too far from our home.