Labour History in Song: For the Company Underground 1839.

   Labour History in song: for the company underground 1839

   When Christ from Heaven comes down straightway all His Father's
      laws to expound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When the man in the moon to Moreton Bay is sent in shackles bound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground

   When the Cape of Good Hope to Twofold Bay comes for the change of a
      pound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When cows in lieu of milk yield tea and all lost treasures are
      found
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground

   When the Australian Co's heaviest dray is drawn eighty miles by a
      hound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When a frog, a caterpillar and flea shall travel the globe all
      round
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground

   When turkeycocks on Jews harps play and mountains dance at the
      sound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When milestones go to church to pray and whales are put in the
      Pound
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground

   When thieves ever robbing on the highway for their sanctity are
      renowned
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When convicts' chains are broke at last and the nine-tail cat is
      unwound*
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground

   When Christmas falls on the 1st of May and O'Connell's King of
      England crown'd
   Macnamara shall work that day for the Company underground
   When the quick and the dead shall stand in array cited at the
      trumpet's sound
   Even then, damn me if I'd work a day for the Company underground
      or overground]

* This line was added by John Warner enabling the poem to be sung to a tune by Peter Bellamy written originally for "The Turnkey's Song" in his folk opera, The Transports.

Francis MacNamara was born in 1811 in Cashel, Ireland. He was transported to Botany Bay in 1832, then to Van Diemen's Land arriving 29 October 1842, by which time he was widely known as Frank the Poet. 2011 is both the bicentenary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of his death. While only one of his poems was published in his lifetime, a dozen more were remembered and collected in oral tradition up to 100 years after his death. Events have been held to formally commemorate this extraordinary poet and songwriter whose 'licentious pen'marks him forever the 'tyrants foe'. And a website www.frankthepoet.com has been established by Mark Gregory. The following poem was written approximately in 1839 and starts: "to J. Crosdale Esq, greeting". Crosdale was the superintendent of the Australia Company's underground establishment at Newcastle.