Indicating Rock
Come all you jolly diggers
And hardy sons of toil
Who have
come to dig on Fiery Creek
And tried to make a pile
You labour just
as constant
As the pendulum of a clock
And you pay such great attention
To the indicating rock
The expert has been to see us
But he's
done but little good
For he said we hadn't got the reef
And knew we
never should
But his scientific theory
Has received a gentle knock
Since he gave us his opinion
On the indicating rock
For at eighty
feet we've struck it
And it's nearly two feet wide
And the lucky finder
lit his pipe
And viewed the reef with pride
He could see the gold as
plainly
As the hands upon a clock
And he blessed the day he sunk upon
The indicating rock
Notes
Collected from Mrs G. L. Ginns, of Merrylands, New South Wales, who writes: "My father, Robert Stewart, was born in 1838 at the Five Islands; spent the early part of his life droving, horse-breaking, shearing and gold digging. My earliest recollections are of him singing the songs he had composed fifty or sixty years before." It seems to fit the tune 'Old Bark Hut' closely enough.