From every corner of the world They came from all around When in 1851 They struck gold upon the ground Every voyage was a long one Months upon the stormy sea Some to seek their fortune Others escaping slavery What they found on the goldfields Was rule by brutish thugs Discrimination and taxation Mixed with swinging billy clubs The gold was getting scarcer And cops were getting worse The diggers burned their licenses And vowed to end this curse
They swore an oath Beneath the Southern Cross That they would stand together And break the license laws From twenty different nations They gathered here as one In Ballarat Beneath the southern sun
The crown tried to divide them Giving preference to some The diggers wouldn't have it They said it's all of us or none They built a stockade While the Redcoats massed nearby And they heard the miners shouting We are ready now to die The rebel miners waited For whatever lay in store And on one December morning In 1854 The Redcoats attacked the camp Dozens there would fall Among these brave gold diggers Who had risen to the call
They swore an oath Beneath the Southern Cross That they would stand together And break the license laws From twenty different nations They gathered here as one In Ballarat Beneath the southern sun
The Army thought that it was over And things now would go their way But when fifteen thousand miners rallied A month later on the day The Crown conceded everything All of their demands They'd won an end to license fees The right to vote and land So here's to Joe and Charley Lalor and the rest They drew the battle lines And put Crown rule to the test The diggers may have lost the battle But they quickly won the day And those shots fired in Victoria Were heard ten thousand miles away
They swore an oath Beneath the Southern Cross That they would stand together And break the license laws From twenty different nations They gathered here as one In Ballarat Beneath the southern sunTeksty umieszczone na naszej stronie są własnością wytwórni, wykonawców, osób mających do nich prawa.
