• 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
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Walkers ! [poem by Grant Hervey]

2 June 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Grant Hervey was published in Australians Yet and Other Verses, 1913.]

Walkers !

Walkers Limited, of Maryborough, completed one desirable century, the other day, when it turned out its hundredth locomotive made for the Bananaland Government.

This is a ballad of Walkers, fashioned with much applause —
While the land was burdened with Talkers, working their facile jaws ;
Weeping at loss of their nigger ; crying to south and north,
Walkers, with skill and vigour, were sending their engines forth !
While Kidston and Philp were sounding tocsins of wrath and war,
Walkers were busy pounding the steel by the furnace door.
Smiting with strong steam-hammers, toiling with lathe and drill —
Walkers, amidst the clamours, stuck to their business still

Boring the cylinders truly, forging the throws and shafts —
Hail, says the Creed raised newly — hail to the hand that grafts !
Shaping the drawbars squarely, turning the pistons true ;
Seating the slide-valves fairly — labour of brain and thew !
Engine and linked tender, taking the tracks with ease ;
Hail to the hands that render services such as these !
Hail to the smith and draftsman, raising the engines tall ;
Cheers for the faithful craftsman — cheers for the workers all !

Rivet and chuck and spanner — iron and brass and steel ;
These are the White Man’s banner, flag of the Commonweal !
Planer and vice and hammer, anvil and flaming forge —
These with their strength a-clamour have leveled the mountain-gorge !
Binding the lands together, fastening North to South ;
Dragging with steel-strong tether food for the workers’ mouth !
Helping Australia forward — yea, in the blood-red day,
Aiding the Nation war-ward, paving the Nation’s way !

This, then, a ballad of Walkers, I for Australia sing;
Not of the countless Talkers flapping a ceaseless wing !
A psalm for the craftsmen loyal, launching the engines true —
A chant for the breed right-royal, for the nameless foundry crew !
Simply an anthem votive, merely a Mateship’s call;
Hail to the Locomotive — Hail to the Builders All!
Riveters, hammerers, caulkers — workers of each degree —
I sing you this ballad of Walkers — a song in a major key.



Source:
Grant Hervey. Australians Yet and Other Verses, Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1913, pages 153-155

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Australians Yet and Other Verses (Grant Hervey 1913), Grant Hervey (1880-1933) (author), poem, SourceArchiveOrg, year1913

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Writers, workers, and wages. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

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

  • Miner’s Right (Victoria) [for Emily Kisler, 21 August 1888]
  • Gwen Price, photographed by Jordan [cabinet card, early 20th century]
  • Woman wearing a wedding dress, photographed by Stewart & Co. [cabinet card, late 19th century]
  • Woman, photographed by Stewart & Co. [cabinet card, late 19th century]
  • Woman, photographed by E. C. Waddington [cabinet card, late 19th century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]

Archives

Categories

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

  • Harold Erwin Manapsal on Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Luke on Australian slang
  • Fiona Haisman on Come-by-Chance [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Michael Holden on Bold Jack Donahoo (Another Version) [song]
  • Raymond on The Miner’s Right

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in