June 11 th 1832 near Turners public house

Good to see you Billy
Let’s have a bit of crack
I’ve sold me bits and pieces
‘Cause I’m never coming back

We’ll have a few pints
The drinks are on me
Then it’s farewell forever
For l’m off to sea

Yes it’s true me old marra
Then it’s farewell to Jarra
I’m catching the tide,sailing today
A new life beckons in Botany Bay

At last I’ve made me mind up
I’m finished with the slack
No more living like a mole
Delving deep for masters coal

The Strand

A lonely figure stood on the strand
No waving fiends or farewell band
Knowing Ralph Armstrong will sail away
Never to return from Botany Bay
Leaving his friend with a fearful stain
To face the shame and bear the blame
With tearss unchecked, that rowled apace
Rolling down a tragic face

Isabella August 1832

Sometimes at close of night she shivers
When dank sea mist curls from the east
Floating,swirling o’er the river
Freezing fog she fears the least
For in the deep night from a distance
A swinging creaking sound appears
Sad cry for help,a plea for justice
Responding to a widow’s tears

Billys funeral

For gods sake oil the hinges
Stop that creaking door
It calls to mind that dreadful noise
As he swung high upon the shore

Mournfully viewed from across the bay
A brutal shameful exercise
Heard at night,and seen by day

His mother called him Billy
His workmates called him Will
The judge named him as William
And now his body’s still

They took him down at midnight
He is suffering no more
No winding sheet for Billy
Carried on a door

No passing bell for Billy
Or headstone proud and carved
No floral tribute o’er the grave
Of a miner who was starved

Isabella 1891

Last refuge in a workhouse
Silent and withdrawn
Merciful amnesia
In a body,tired and worn

Rocking back and forward
In a foreign place
A creaking door or window
Sends tears rolling down her face

Sixty years of mourning
In a struggle to survive
Yet somehow,deep within her heart
Her love is still alive