[00:00.00]Clara Waters - Slim Dusty
[00:02.57]I was drivin' out through Mitchell
[00:05.66]Heard a lonesome railroad whistle
[00:08.29]So I stopped beside the highway for a spell
[00:13.97]And in this pleasant place
[00:16.43]Was a notice well displayed
[00:19.13]With a story I am now about to tell
[00:25.03]The notice was a roll of those who'd paid the toll
[00:29.88]While working on the railroad to the west
[00:35.53]Wives and workers perished
[00:37.95]With the children that they cherished
[00:40.44]And in lonely graves were gently laid to rest
[00:45.37]Then I found my vision misted
[00:48.38]As among the many listed
[00:51.21]The name of Clara Waters caught my eye
[00:56.59]I imagined my own daughter
[00:59.18]In the place of Clara Waters
[01:01.92]While the busy highway traffic hurtled by
[01:12.71]How short her life had been
[01:15.39]She was only seventeen
[01:18.04]Yet her story may be very simply told
[01:23.94]A doctor might have saved her
[01:26.29]From the fever after labour
[01:29.00]Her baby died when he was four days old
[01:34.51]Then the scene before me shifted
[01:37.16]As back in time I drifted
[01:39.84]As back in time a hundred years I went
[01:45.00]And through my muddled dreaming
[01:47.81]A morning sun came beaming
[01:50.46]On a battered billy steaming by a tent
[01:56.08]For here was pretty Clara
[01:58.57]With her husband there to share a
[02:01.35]Simple meal before their daily task
[02:06.58]I am anxious now to meet her
[02:09.20]So I hurry on to greet her
[02:11.94]With the questions that I feel I have to ask
[02:19.92]And when the day is breaking
[02:22.61]Is there happiness in waking
[02:25.31]Have you had your share of laughter joy and cheer
[02:30.43]You were very young to marry
[02:33.33]And the baby that you carry
[02:35.92]Does it make you wish your mother could be near
[02:41.52]In the coolness of the morning
[02:44.18]In the piccaninnie dawning
[02:46.82]Does your husband tell you often of his love
[02:52.25]While the magpies merry singing
[02:54.85]In the higher branches ringing
[02:57.58]Is bringing morning greetings from above
[03:03.12]Does the gentle evening breeze
[03:05.77]Wave the smoke up through the trees
[03:08.34]Do you see the shafts of sunlight drifting down
[03:13.56]Or has drudgery and duty
[03:16.23]Made you blind to every beauty
[03:18.93]While the camp is turning dusty bare and brown
[03:27.20]With a bed of planks and sacking
[03:29.67]And with every comfort lacking
[03:32.50]Growing heavy as your time is drawing near
[03:37.91]In your shabby tent so dreary
[03:40.81]Are you very often weary
[03:43.18]And do you sometimes shed a silent lonely tear
[03:51.37]And when her son was born
[03:53.91]On a hot December morn
[03:56.56]And the deadly fever started on it's quest
[04:01.69]Was there time for her to hold him
[04:04.66]And in her love enfold him
[04:07.30]Was there time to give him comfort at her breast
[04:12.78]Of course there's no replying
[04:15.28]To my questions and my prying
[04:18.04]And suddenly I know it's time to go
[04:23.40]But I reckon I'll remember
[04:26.09]What happened that December
[04:28.73]In the summertime a hundred years ago
[04:36.88]And then a road train passes
[04:39.53]There's a ripple through the grasses
[04:42.33]As if to wave a fleeting sad goodbye
[04:47.52]To Clara and her son
[04:49.97]Their lives so briefly run
[04:52.70]And the busy highway traffic
[04:55.83]Rushes by