D A7 D D7 G C 1. The restless shadows by me flit, And day will soon be o'er A7 D Bm G Em A7 As in the dying light I sit, Outside my wha-re door D A7 D D7 G C Away across the east I see, The black swans homeward come A7 D Bm G G6 Through sunset skies that gleam on me, A digger scraping gum. C F G A7 G D Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho! 2. Mid hills of grey and brown I live here in the scrub Full 50 miles from any town And ten from any pub Through winter's rain and summer's drought This life maybe suits some I grind a scanty living out A digger scraping gum Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho! 3. And if you want the way you've gone Hid from friends you've lost As slow the years of life steal on And turn the hair to frost. Then see across the Eastern sky, The black swans homeward come Neath sunset skies that gleam on my, Hard scraping of the gum. Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho-wup! Yo-ho!

The Black Swans on Record

'Songs of the Gum-diggers' The Song Spinners 1969
'Song of a young Country' Dave Calder 1972
'Fields of the Gum' Bill & Kath Worsfold 1999

The Black Swans origins

These lyrics, by an anonymous songwriter, were collected from E L Eyre by Neil Colquhoun who constructed this tune for it, and first published it in 1965 in "Song of a Young Country"

 

Digging for kauri gum

Kauri gum is formed when resin exudes from a crack in the bark of the kauri (Agathis australis) and hardens on exposure to air.

Pieces of various sizes, some weighing a kilogram or more, collect in the axils of the branches and in the debris at the base of the tree. Maori and early Europeans found pieces of gum lying on the ground It was recognised overseas as a suitable resin for manufacture of a slow-drying varnish with a hard finish and in 1853, 829 tons of gum were exported,

When all the kauri gum lying on top of the ground had been collected, Maoris and Europeans began to dig up the big lumps near the surface. Over 4,000 tons, averaging �40 a ton, went overseas in 1870.

Spades were the first implements of the gum-diggers; then the spear and hook were devised. The "gum-spear" was a long steel rod attached to a spade handle and tapering to a sharp point. A pikau, or sack, for carrying gum, completed the "tools of trade" of the early gumdigger.

In 1885 about 2,000 diggers were at work, mainly in areas north of Auckland, although the best gum came from the Coromandel Peninsula. The highest export for any year was reached in 1899, with 11,116 tons.

By 1900, hundreds of "Dalmatians", immigrants from Croatia, were on the gumfields, where they camped together in groups. Joseph Smith and his family dug for gum near Dargaville, "...in a house of nikau palm with doors of sacking, and matresses of bush creeper. We spent the whole day hookin' gum and the evening scrapin' it, and singin'. But our singin' was not as hair-raisin' as that further down the track at the Dallie gumdiggers' camp".