Where I Grew To Be A Man (1960)
In Newcastle during the Depression many unemployed put up humpies and lived on the island inthe middle of the Newcastle River. ON an island in a river,
How that bitter river ran !
I grew on scraps of charity
In the best way that you can,
On that island in the river
Where I grew to be a man. For dole bread is bitter bread,
Black bread and sour,
There's grief in the taste of it,
There's weevils in the flour. And just across the river
Stood the mighty B.H.P.
Poured pollution on the waters,
Poured the lead of misery,
And its smoke was black as hades
Rolling hungry to the sea. In those humpies by the river,
We lived on dole and stew,
And just across the river
Those greedy smokestacks grew.
And the hunger of the many
Filled the bellies of the few. Oh ! winter on the river
Was a time of bitter cold,
A time of hungry bellies
And children growing old,
And men with nothing else to do
But watch the river roll. For dole bread is bitter bread.
Black bread and sour,
There's grief in the taste of it,
There's weevils in the flour. Oh ! cats on the river
And men on the tide,
They all became a commonplace
On our river side,
And even mothers couldn't weep
When new-born babies died. Oh ! black was the steel town,
And black was the smoke,
Cold-black the river water.
That can drown a man and choke,
Till he dreams up a furnace fire
Of his own to stoke. We met beside the river,
With the ghosts of good men drowned,
We picketed the steel mill
And we banked our hunger down
With words that stung and deeds that hung
Like live things on the town. For dole bread is bitter bread,
There's weevils in the flour,
There's rage in the taste of it,
Black bread and sour. On an island in a river,
How that bitter river ran !
It broke the banks of charity,
It baked the bread of man,
On that island in the river
Where my life's long fight began. For dole bread is bitter bread,
There's weevils in the flour,
But men grow strong as iron upon
Black bread and sour .... DOROTHY HEWETT Notes From the NSW newspaper The Tribune 30 Nov 1960 p. 7.
This industrial poem became famous in the 1960's when Mike Leyden set it to music and retitled it "Weevils in the Flour." Top