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In 2022, sea waters north of
New Zealand had warmed to 6°C hotter than usual. Extra
evaporation from there led to 10 inches of rain falling in
Auckland on the 27th of January, 2023, and two weeks later
to a cyclone that dropped heavy rain in the northeast of
our country, especially between Gisborne and Hastings.
In the first
three hours of the 14th of February, Cyclone Gabrielle
dropped 10 inches of rain on denuded high-country slopes
behind the Bay, creating flood waters up to 7 metres deep
and dumping up to 2 metres of silt on coastal flatland, with
the loss of at least 11 lives.
Key
of G
1.
Now D
come on all you good keen men
Your G Council's
re-zoned land again
Way D down
yonder where the willows grow
A G real
good place for your crops to go
So E7 put
down your cash an' A
pick up a loan
Get a D bran'
new farm of your G
own.
And it's A7
one, Eb7
two, D
three
D7
What're we G
workin' for?
Don't ask me, I've D
lost all m' land
Grab a shovel an’ D
give us a hand
And it's A7
five, Eb7
six, D
seven
D7
Rain's still G
peltin'
down
No we
E
haven’t got
time t' A
stand an'
frown
Yo D
Bro! We’re
all gunta' G
drown!
No roads on our hills . . .
2. No roads in our
hills, no crops on our plains
All washed away when Gabrielle came
We've grown your food, followed your advice
Now's the time to start treating us nice.
If there’s not enough food for us all to be fed
Chur Bro! Lots of yous 'll be dead.
. . . no crops on our plains
And it's one, two, three
What're we workin' for?
Don't ask me, I've lost all m' land
Grab yourself a shovel, give us a hand
And it's five, six, seven
Rain's still bucketing down
No we haven’t got time t' stand an'
frown
Look out mate! We're all gunta' drown!
Windy.com's Sunday forecast for 11pm Mon.
3. We looked at
Windy Dot Com on Sunday night
Predicting flood levels of incredible height
But the powers-that-be said “It’s quite OK
Gabrielle won’t wash your family away.”
Then our river rose up on Tuesday at dawn
And old friends of mine are now gone.
Then our river rose up . . . Rooftop rescue.
And it's one, two, three
What are we workin' for?
Don't ask me, I've lost all m' land
Grab another shovel, give us a hand
And it's five, six, seven
Rain's still persisting down
No we haven’t got time t' stand an'
frown
Matey mate! We’re all gunta' drown
4. Y' build
more factories, y' fell more trees,
More dairy cows, drive as far as y' please
You say there’s been no climate changes
Tell that to us here by the Mamaku Ranges
Those greenhouse gases brought us Gabrielle
All of Godzone's Land’s become hell.
And it's one, two, three
What are we workin' for?
Don't ask me, I've lost all m' land
Grab a shovel an’ give us a hand
And it's five, six, seven
Rain's still ch-chunderin' down
This ain't the time t' stand aroun' an'
frown
Au-eeee ! We're all gunta drown!
Au-eeeeeeeee!
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Cyclone Gabrielle
In
the 1850s, deer from Europe were released onto steep New
Zealand high country, for 'sportsmen's trophies.' By the 1930s
the deer were so numerous that they were destroying the
protective forest cover and causing eroded hill-side gravels
to be washed onto the rich soil of lowland farm paddocks. So
hundreds of cullers were employed to prevent erosion, by
shooting as many deer as possible.
But in more recent times, the rain-absorbing protective native
forests behind the rich coastal plains of Hawke's Bay and
Tairawhiti were destroyed, not by deer, but by irresponsible
sheep and pine plantation farmers out to make a quick buck.
Alas, the cullers were not allowed to shoot the bad farmers,
and in February 2023, there were inevitable consequences. More
about Gabrielle.
Gabrielle's path, powered by hot sea-water
The Auckland Floods
I wrote the first variant of
this song in January, parodying land developers who bribed
Auckland District Council officials into rezoning known
low-lying flood lands as suitable for building houses on,
while storm water drains and pipes were allowed to
deteriorate.
More
about these floods.
2.
Well, come on bankers let's move fast
Your
big chance has come at last
These
poor suckers don't want to rent
Lend
them half a million at one per cent
An'
when they're up to their necks an' kin hardly survive
You
can raise your rate up to five!
And
it's 1-2-3, what are we working for?
Don't
ask me, I had to work late
Floggin'
prefabs in Mangrove Estate
And
it's 5-6-7, the heavens have opened today
Well
there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
See
them all float away.
Full
song.
2009 Council map of known flood-prone South Auckland areas.
Eddie O'Strange
 Veteran
broadcaster, record producer and songsmith, including a Gold
Record, a couple of Number Ones, our capital city's official
song, and compositions for recording artists.
Among his many passion projects designed to encourage local
song-smithery, his proposal in 1961 to establish "The New
Zealand Music Awards" was accepted by the NZBC resulting
in the Loxene Golden Disc award.
Various Australiasian music-related sectors were then
persuaded to use Eddie's original proposal
as a model for a wide range of awards. Thus the ARIA
awards came into existence. The Recording
Thanks to all those who gave
their time to record the song.
Neil
Worboys:
Lead Vocal, BVs
Nigel
Marshall:
Acoustic guitar, BVs
Bill
Wood:
Resonator guitar, BVs
Peter
Gregory: Bass
guitar, BVs
Don
Franks:
Piano
Richard
Klein:
Fiddle
Eddie
O’Strange:
Producer [Label:Aotearoa, Zealandia]
Maurice Priestley: Engineer.
PriMau
Productions +64 21 552 933
Put onto folksong.org.nz website March 2023
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