Click Go The Shears dates from time of shearers strike in 1890s, newly unearthed lyrics reveal

Updated January 31, 2014 13:51:42

Research has uncovered a much earlier version of one of Australia's most famous folk songs, linking it to a strike which almost caused a civil war and led to the birth of the Australian Labor Party.

The discovery places the ballad popularly known as Click Go The Shears around the time of the 1891 national shearers strike, which was the biggest industrial dispute of its time.

Sydney-based researcher Mark Gregory found the lyrics in the National Archives as part of a doctoral thesis on songs and poetry linked to the Australian labour movement.

The lyrics were published as The Bare Belled Ewe in Victoria's Bacchus Marsh Times in late 1891.

This is more than half a century before the song became popular in the 1950s, when American entertainer Burl Ives recorded an incomplete version during a tour of Australia.

"The first time most Australians would have heard the song was actually in 1952 sung with an American accent, so really its popularity stems from that date in many ways," Mr Gregory said.

"There were shearers who knew it, so it was known and it was always known as a song sung to an American civil war tune or song called Ring The Bell Watchman."

Griffith University emeritus professor of history and politics Ross Fitzgerald says the published date of the discovery is significant because it links the song to a time when Queensland shearers almost caused a civil war.

"The colonial government used armed and mounted troops and militia to deal with the armed strikers," he said.

"It was a very, very inflammable situation."

He says the shearers' defeat in 1891 and 1894 led the Queensland labour movement to move away from direct action into parliamentary representation via the Labor Party.

"That happened so quickly after 1895 that by 1899 for a week Queensland had the first labour government in the world, led by a man named Anderson Dawson from Charters Towers from the dual [member] electorate of Charters Towers," he said.

"Most people don't realise that Queensland indeed had the first labour government in the world from December 1 to December 7, 1899." 

Sean Murphy’s full report on The Bare Belled Ewe and shearing today will air on Landline this Sunday at noon on ABC 1.

Topics: folk, music, arts-and-entertainment, 19th-century, history, community-and-society, alp, political-parties, government-and-politics, barcaldine-4725, qld, bacchus-marsh-3340, vic, australia

First posted January 31, 2014 13:19:50