• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

“London Board!” [poem by Grant Hervey, 27 November 1910]

10 June 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by Grant Hervey, published in his “Cuts and Carvings” column, in The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 27 November 1910.]

“London Board!”

The London Board is dissatisfied with the results obtained. — Any mining report.

Its seal upon the continents, its hand upon, the “wires” —
The London Board’s dissatisfied; there’s Nothing it admires!
Six fat and portly gentlemen — perchance there’s eight or nine —
They howl for larger dividends and curse the distant mine!
They are the blest Directorate, who run this sinful show,
Where we with steel and dynamite are toiling for the Co.!
They are the swollen Emperors, who patronise the Lord;
Who vex perspiring managers — the blanky London Board!

From Southern Cross to Chillagoe, from Zeehan to the Towers,
The slaves of British capital are sweating through the hours!
From Broken Hill to Bendigo, their serfs are bursting rock,
And stamps are busy thundering from Clunes to Boulder Block!
The whole perspiring continent is rushing to and fro
To please the bloated autocrats who navigate the Co.!
For them the pounding batteries by night and day have roared;
Have bashed upon the diorite to serve the London Board!

They fume in murky offices twelve thousand miles away;
Whilst we are busy shattering the rock and shifting clay!
They send complaining cablegrams that crawl beneath the sea;
We toil beneath the universe — where London Boards should be!
Amalgam pans and poppet heads are Symbols of their sway
Throughout this cursing Commonwealth from Q. to W.A.!
They are the guiding Providence, and theirs the rich reward;
We are the blanky helotry who feed the London Board!

The produce of the furnaces, the filter-press and mill,
Is offered up from Ballarat and Cue and Broken Hill!
They are the final arbiters — and God before the Co.
Is less than quartz or diorite whose grade is cheap and low!
Production-costs take precedence of all the seraphim;
And dividends are salted with the blood of Bill and Jim —
To burst the blank machinery is sinful and deplored;
But merely human accidents are nothing to the Board!

The Fat Man when dissatisfied, is sordid, blunt and plain!
And angry Bull-Directorates grow hoarse in Fetter-Lane!
There is a grief oppresses them — they may not bring the Chow
To gouge Australian dividends — the world, they think, should bow!
The humble earth, obedient, should fall upon its knees;
Should labor long and zealously for microscopic fees!
To make the world a mullock-heap, exploited and explored —
’Tis thus ambition goadeth them, the bloated London Board!

Their serfs on all the continents, their cables on the “wires” —
The Board abhors Democracy and national desires!
The fists of angry Emperors are shaken ’gainst this Land —
This bad and sinful Commonwealth where Chows are barred and banned!
Whilst we with drills and dynamite earn profits for the Co.,
They curse ’midst London murkiness — where all the profits flow!
These Persons large and arrogant throw coppers to the Lord;
They are the Earth’s proprietors — the blanky London Board!

— Grant Hervey.



Source:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 27 November 1910, p. 18

Editor’s notes:
amalgam pans = large vats in which ore is mixed with mercury, using processes by which the mercury adheres to the precious metals and is later separated [see: Charles M. Robinson III (editor), The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke: Volume Three, June 1, 1878 — June 22, 1880, Denton (Texas): University of North Texas Press, c2007, page 94]

Bill and Jim = Australians, from the common first names “Bill” and “Jim” (the name “Billjim”, or “Bill-Jim”, was used in Australia from the late 1800s to refer to Australians, and was used during the First World War as a slang term for an Australian soldier)

blanky = substitution for a swear word (such as “bloody”)

Chillagoe = a town in Queensland, west of Cairns, known for mineral mining

Chow = a Chinese person (may also refer to something that is Chinese in origin or style, e.g. a “Chow restaurant”)

Co. = an abbreviation of “Company”

Cue = a town in Western Australia, about 650 km. north-east of Perth, known for gold mining

Fat Man = capitalist

mullock-heap = the refuse heap (of rocks, etc.) where the waste material from a mining operation is dumped (when associated with big mines, these can reach great heights)

poppet heads = frameworks above mining shafts that support the winding mechanisms

Q. = Queensland

seraphim = angels which are regarded as a highly-ranked order of angel (the Seraphim are mentioned in the Bible, in Isaiah 6: “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne . . . Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings”)

Southern Cross = a town in Western Australia, about 371 km. east of Perth, known for gold mining

Towers = Charters Towers, a town in Queensland, about 137 km. south-west of Townsville, known for gold mining

Zeehan = a town in Tasmania, about 139 km. south-west of Burnie, known for silver and lead mining

W.A. = Western Australia

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Grant Hervey (author) (1880-1933), poem, SourceTrove, year1910

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Vale! Percy Mahoney [by H. A. Burton, 14 December 1950]
  • Early-day sportsman’s death [obituary of Percy Mahoney, 7 December 1950]
  • Visits to the IAC site from various countries
  • Poems by J. Shaw Neilson [book review, 22 December 1923]
  • “Australia in Palestine” [book review, 6 November 1919]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]

Categories

Archives

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Rawlinson R on Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • Mike Gregory on Australian slang
  • Peter Morgan on Rise of the wool industry: John Macarthur’s work for Australia [chapter 10 of “The story of Australia” by Martin Hambleton]
  • raymond on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]
  • IAC on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in