Verse 1
In South Australia I was born!
Heave away! Haul away!
South Australia round Cape Horn!
We’re bound for South Australia!
Chorus
Heave away, you rolling king,
Heave away! Haul away!
All the way you’ll hear me sing,
We’re bound for South Australia!
Verse 2
As I walked out one morning fair.
Heave away! Haul away!
It’s there I met Miss Nancy Blair.
We’re bound for South Australia!
Verse 3
I shook her up, I shook her down.
Heave away! Haul away!
I shook her round and round the town.
We’re bound for South Australia!
Verse 4
There ain’t but one thing grieves my mind.
Heave away! Haul away!
It’s to leave Miss Nancy Blair behind.
We’re bound for South Australia!
Verse 5
Up the coast to Vallipo.
Heave away! Haul away!
Northward on to Callao.
We’re bound for South Australia!
Verse 6
And as you wallop round Cape Horn.
Heave away! Haul away!
You’ll wish to Christ you’d never been born.
We’re bound for South Australia!
A sea shanty working song that leaves not doubt about when the effort should be put in.
Its earliest known notation comes from J L Smith, an author who wrote on subjects relating to the sea. She published it in an 1888 collection having obtained it in an 1888 interview with a black sailor who lived in London, and not from South Australia after all. In fact few of the earliest sources of the song relate to South Australia or anyone that ever claimed to live there!!
South Australia, also known as "Rolling King" and "Bound for South Australia", highlights the often contentious flaw in Folk tune collecting; undoubtedly collecting these songs has enriched the Folk repertoire, but to some extent, the songs themselves become "pickled" in that once people "know" a song or tune, they see it as a rigid, inflexible thing, rather than a snap shot of a living changing thing. We have a set verse pattern, and we have written it down to help other people enjoy singing it in a group. But there is far more these songs than what we have written on the page...
