Western Australia For Me single work   lyric/song   "From the old Western world, we have come to explore"
Issue Details: First known date: 1831... 1831 Western Australia For Me
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Latest Issues

VIEW ALL ISSUES (C14311)

Notes

  • Author's note (1884 edition): Air-'Ballinamona oro.'
  • Author's note (1884 edition): Sung by me at the first ball given by the Governor, Sir James Stirling, in Perth. - G. F. M.
  • The first ball was held 3 September, 1831.
  • Moore included two explanatory notes at the end of the poem in the 1884 edition: the first note refers to the phrase 'No lions or tigers' in the first line of the final stanza and reads 'There are no ferocious beasts there. The timid kangaroo is the largest indigenous animal. Swans were so abundant on the river when first discovered as to give the name Swan River Settlement. I dare not say that I christened the colony, but certainly after the above song the name of Western Australia was adopted.' Note two refers to the phrase 'Our currency's' in the sixth line of the final stanza and reads 'There was much trouble then about a debased currency at the Cape of Good Hope and elsewhere.'
  • J. M. R. Cameron in The Millendon Memoirs (2006) notes that copies of the song were widely circulated. A copy was sent to relatives of the Tanner family, also Swan River colonists, in England and published in Joseph Cross's Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia (1833). It was known in India and seems also to have been published in an English or Irish newspaper. (37; 151; 190; 191)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1831
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia; and, Also a Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language of the Aborigines George Fletcher Moore , London : M Walbrook , 1884 Z844670 1884 selected work diary criticism poetry

    In his 'Preface: Introductory and Explanatory' to this 1884 version of his Diary, Moore describes 'the "Diary or Journal" herinafter contained ... It was commenced soon after my embarcation from Dublin ... for the space of ten years in the colony, until my first return home on leave of absence. It was not continued after that time. ' (vi) The 'original letters' were first 'carefully preserved by those to whom they were sent in [Ireland]' and later 'confided to the care of a near relative in the colony, who had expressed a great desire to see them.' (vii). They were shown to Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, half owner and editor of the West Australian newspaper who requested permission from Moore to 'publish extracts from them seriatim in his paper, according as space would admit of.' (vii). Cockburn-Campbell sent Moore 'a copy of each paper which contained an extract.' Moore 'cut out those extracts and gummed them into an album ... enabl[ing] me to publish them all here afresh.' (vii)

    With the Diary of Ten Years, Moore added 'a "Descriptive Vocabulary" of the language of the Aborigines...' (vii) originally published in 1842 and 'long out of print'. (ix)

    J. M. R. Cameron in his introduction to The Millendon Memoirs (2006) notes that the Diary 'brought together the 1834 Extracts as they appeared originally, edited by Doyle not Campbell, and Campbell's edited excerpts for the later period.... [However] Moore deleted entries for the period from 10 April to 11 June 1836 which had appeared in the [West Australian] newspaper on 4 April 1882. (viii-ix)

         London : M Walbrook , 1884     pg. 65
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Margins : A West Coast Selection of Poetry 1829-1988 William Grono (editor), Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1988 Z141535 1988 anthology poetry Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1988 pg. 24-25
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Western Australian Writing : An Online Anthology John Kinsella (editor), Nedlands : University of Western Australia Library AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2003 Z1075006 2003 anthology poetry autobiography biography correspondence essay extract prose short story Nedlands : University of Western Australia Library AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource , 2003
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry John Kinsella (editor), Tracy Ryan (editor), North Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 2017 8848074 2017 anthology poetry

    'The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry is a comprehensive survey of the state’s poets from the 19th century to today.

    'Featuring work from 128 poets, and accompanied by biographical notes and an introductory essay by editors John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan, this watershed anthology brings together the poems that have contributed to and defined the way that Western Australians see themselves.' (Publication summary)

         North Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 2017     pg. 49
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()
Last amended 15 Sep 2017 14:22:04
Subjects:
  • Western Australia,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X