Garth Dutton

Goyder’s Line – A Song

George Goyder was Surveyor General in the S.A. Government in the late nineteenth century. He drew his ‘line’ at a natural boundary where mallee scrub ended and saltbush plains began.

Until the fiasco of the advance beyond Goyder’s Line the population of South Australia’s coutryside had been steadily increasing. The retreat from it started a process of movement from the countryside to Adelaide that continues today.

About “Goyder’s Line” as a song. I don’t think anyone has ever worked out by ear how to play an accompaniment to the song version of ‘Goyder’s Line’. This is not surprising as it is ‘atonal’. The main verse riff of the verses goes from F to A. F has a Bflat in its key signature, and A has three sharps, so that effectively cancels out key signature altogether.

Anyway, enjoy…

Goyder’s Line
© Garth Dutton 2000

They had no gold like the Eastern States,
but the layout of land and sea
meant ships could sail up into the heart
of good land for growing wheat.
But a rush further north was on in earnest
in the Eighteen-seventies.
They said that rain would follow the plough
and went onwards without heed.

Goyder had warned, and drawn his Line.
He’d seen the north in normal years.
But when the rains came early
and the rains came well,
the whole desert was in bloom.
It was said the growth of desert flowers
was a sign of fertility,
so they followed the vision of a golden north
full of fields of wheat.

Some held on, though all hope had gone,
through winters with little rain.
With ground bone dry and frosts that were hard,
they cursed the saltbush plains.
And one by one they were forced back south,
somehow to start again…
In the north leaving only heartbreak,
not golden fields of grain.

Now across South Australia’s northern plains
the lonely ruins stand.
Reminders that men once came
to plough and sow this land.

Tags: adelaide, garth dutton, george goyder, lyricist, Lyrics, Music, south australia

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