Given the physical evidence around the Bundaberg district, what did they teach us about the Islanders in school? Not much, as I recall, but then local history didn’t feature prominently in the curriculum, at least in those long ago days when I was a student.
However, they did get a mention on a record that my primary school choir and orchestra made in 1982. Oh yes, I have a recording career.
Walkervale State School, as seen through the lens of time. Actually, I believe this photo was used for the schools 25th anniversary in 1980, so it’s from the right era.
In 1982 I was in grade 6 at Walkervale State School, and I played the trumpet in the song on side A of the little 45 rpm single we produced (kids, if you don’t know what this means, ask your parents or a friendly DJ).
This was a grandiose, sentimental ode to Bundaberg, called A Special Town to Me. It was sung by the senior choir (grades 6 and 7), and recorded at what was then the Crest Cinema, and is now called the Moncrieff Theatre. Sorry, Moncrieff Entertainment Centre.
Side B was rather more upbeat. It was a cheerful song called Sugar Cane, written by the school’s music teacher and local pianist Roger Waters, and performed by the junior choir (grades 1 to 5). When I say “performed”, they didn’t just sing but they played recorders as well.
You’ll appreciate this when you listen to an MP3 of the recording, as held by the Bundaberg Regional Libraries:
The lyrics are as follows:
Sugar cane
Strong men from the islands toil,
Planting cane in Queensland soil.
Huge plantations prospered then,
With little profit to island men.Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Grow the crop with the summer rain.
Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Burning fires and long mill trains.The word around Australia rang,
Bring your knives and call your gang.
You can earn a generous pay
If you cut and load the cane all day.Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Grow the crop with the summer rain.
Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Burning fires and long mill trains.The cane knives are all rusty now,
The huge machines cut tons an hour.
They chop and load it into bins,
Machine power over manpower wins.Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Grow the crop with the summer rain.
Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Burning fires and long mill trains.Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Grow the crop with the summer rain.
Sugar cane, sugar cane,
Burning fires and long mill trains.Burning fires and long mill trains.
Burning fires and long mill trains.
This is a song written for and sung by primary school students, so naturally it’s fairly light on mentions of kidnapping and forced labour. But it also reflects the level of common knowledge at the time, which was that the Islanders worked hard and probably weren’t adequately compensated.
But as quiet as it is on the injustices of history, it still says more than I can recall from the formal classes.
The power of music, eh?
Bell's inequality 