Electric loco emerging at Arthurs Pass in 1964

Now I come from Westland, so I'm not one to boast
But when the white man first laid his eyes on the coast
He picked up his shovel and he said with a will
I'm gonna dig a big hole through that hill
For there's drought and there's thirst on the Canterbury plain
And there must be a place where it knows how to rain
Well he sure said a mouthful because it's raining here still
In the green paradise through the hole in the hill
This green paradise through the hole in the hill.


         Westerly rain clouds are stopped by the high Southern Alps

Oh the song of the bushman rings out through the trees
As he slips on the rocks and he barks both his knees
And ten miles from nowhere you brake with a slam
For up pops a notice "Watch out for the tram"
Well you know very well it's a ruddy big lie
So you give it the gun - and a loco rolls by
Your jalopy and you ride the logs to the mill
For them sign posts don't lie through the hole in the hill.
The signs don't lie through the hole in the hill.


                        Arahura combined road/rail bridge

When the wily white whitebait swims in from the sea
Well the poor old coast worker, he's got to get his own tea
For Mum's got his gumboots, his southwester and socks
And from sunrise to sunset she's out on those rocks
She swoops and she swoops as the fishes swim in
And plonks the whole lot in a kerosene tin
While dad and the kids eat cold hash for a thrill
She rails the darn lot through the hole in the hill
She rails the lot through the hole in the hill.


Mum gets $50 a kilogram for whitebait; that's $1000 for a full pail.

Well they built a big bonfire on Westland's wild shores
and they burned the red tape and the licensing laws
and the cops and the barmen they danced in a ring
while the whole population raised Hades to sing
O come to the free land, O come with a will
Come Tom, come Dick and Harry, come Bert and Bill
For you won't find a sign of the six o'clock swill
In the green paradise through the hole in the hill
A green paradise through the hole in the hill.


Pubs stayed (quietly) open after 6 pm for coal-miners on shift work

When the old timers felt they could to get a bit frisky
They primed themselves up on some fine moonshine whiskey
And where do you think they established their still?
In a hole in the wall in the hole in the hill.

But progress has come, now we're cultured I fear
And the Coasters have vices, at least so we hear
Don't know how we got them, perhaps never will
Guess they came out of the hole in the hill
...ought to blow up the hole in the hill
Guess they came out of the hole in the hill
....ought to blow up the hole in the hill.

Worst days work we ever did!
Letting them put that tunnel through you know...
Would have been part of New South Wales by now...
What a difference it would have made...
Oh well, there you go, I guess you can't have it all ways...
Never mind....
Well, back to the boozer.....