All my life I've wanted to be a wharfie,
A wharfie that's all I've wanted to be.
I wheels me barrow, I wheels it with pride,
Paddy Murphy, Jimmy Woodster staggering by me side.
I thumbs me nose at all the pannos,
Down where the Cairns Inlet flows,
They'll sell you for a shilling
That's how they get their living,
They should have been in the police force years ago,
Gord Blimey! they should have been in the police force years ago.
"The song was originally published in Ron Edwards "Big Book of Australian
Folk Songs" and Ron writes: "The Wharfies Song was once popular with
waterside workers up and down the east coast of Australia, and is based on
the old music hall ditty about the barrow boy.
This version was collected
from Cairns identity 'Tiger' O'Shane, who learnt it while working on the
wharf. The names, and the locations would be changed by each singer to suit
his companions and the area in which he was working. A panno is a pannikin
boss, or more correctly a foreman stevedore" (Source:
Union
Songs)
2. Make up another verse to
the Wharfie's Song and
submit it to On the Job.
The Living End: Roll On
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Literacy
1. Listen to and watch the following
video: The Living End: Roll On
2. Using the lyrics, create a poster, using Edu Glogster, about this song.
Australian
Context - the History of the Waterside Worker
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Critical and creative thinking Australian
Curriculum General Capability:Personal and social capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding
1. This clip[s]
shows scenes of the working conditions of the waterside workers in
the 1970s, comparing them with scenes from a film illustrating the working
conditions of the waterside workers in the 1930s. It opens with scenes of
workers on the wharves in the 1970s followed by dramatised black-and-white
footage from the Waterside Workers Film Unit 1955 production The Hungry
Mile, which re-created the harsh conditions endured by workers in the
1930s. A voice-over narration includes lines from the poem
The Hungry Mile
[a Union song].
Educational value points [ from
Australian Screen]:
In this
clip the filmmaker attempts to counter prejudice against dock workers in
the 1970s by indicating how their unions had improved conditions from
the slave-like conditions of the past. The growth of unions and
industrial action in the late 1960s and early 1970s during a period of
economic growth and full employment alarmed both business and
governments. Of all unionists, dock workers were perceived as the most
militant and quickest to go on strike.
The
commentary and black-and-white footage indicate the severe and primitive
conditions of work on the docks in the 1930s and later. Men are shown
engaged in physically demanding labouring work manhandling cargo. Men
were often injured carrying enormous loads during long shifts and were
poorly paid with no job security. There were no changing rooms, no
washrooms and no toilets. Horsedrawn vehicles such as the one shown were
used well into the 1950s.
Footage
of haggard men in a queue presents the humiliation endured by those who,
desperate for work, had to take part in ‘the pickup’, in which a foreman
would select 40 of the biggest and strongest men to load and offload a
ship from a crowd of hundreds during times of scarce employment. This
unregulated ‘bull’ system prevailed until the Second World War called
the stronger men away, and was susceptible to favouritism and corruption
from bribery.
Dramatic
scenes are shown from The Hungry Mile, a film made by the Waterside
Workers Film Unit in 1955, one of 13 documentaries made to dramatise and
draw attention to the experiences of working people in Australia. It
focused on the harsh experiences of those who worked on the wharves in
the 1930s. The worn faces of the men, played by 1950s waterside workers
and pensioners, convey the desperate need for work in the Great
Depression years.
In the
clip, lines are read from the ‘wharfie poem’ The Hungry Mile, a
work by Ernest Antony (1894-1970) who tramped Sydney’s wharves during
the 1930s looking for work. The poem conveys his familiarity with the
conditions he describes and the language communicates his intent to
inspire a desire for social justice in his fellow workers. Always part
of the trade union movement, he contributed his poems to labour movement
publications in the 1920s and 30s.
‘The
Hungry Mile’ was the name maritime workers gave to the mile of wharves
between Darling Harbour and Miller’s Point on Sydney’s waterfront along
which workers tramped each day seeking work in an industry that did not
offer permanent work in the 1930s and 1940s. The Hungry Mile was also an
urban slum area where generations of maritime workers and their families
lived close to the wharves in rooming houses, rented premises and shared
housing.(Source:
Australia Screen)
2. Look at the following video clip from
7.30 Report:
3. Compare and contrast the two videos - the historic
one showing the Waterside Workers in the 1930s and again in 2011.