We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Birchgrove Park

from Crossing the Line by Forty Degrees South

/

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Songs of the southern oceans - 22 tracks

    Comes in cardboard sleeve with printed 8 page booklet

    Shipping outside Australia takes 2-3 weeks using standard postage. Contact us for any queries.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Crossing the Line via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $20 AUD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 AUD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 4 Forty Degrees South releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Crossing the Line, Life Of Brine, Shore Leave, and Hazard, Hardship And Damned Little Pay. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $38.25 AUD or more (15% OFF)

     

about

The Birchgrove Park, a ‘Miller’s Sixty Miler’ of 640 tons, was carrying coal from Newcastle to Sydney in July 1956 but foundered off the Barrenjoey Light in a southerly buster. At the time eight bodies were recovered but two others also drowned; four were saved. The hatches were not properly covered and let water in; the coal moved in the swell increasing the list from uneven loading.

lyrics

The night fell dark on the quiet sea
The Birchgrove Park rode restlessly
A collier on the short run down
Of nineteen men there were eight men who drowned

A sudden lurch as she slid below
The way that all the colliers go
If home bound men had battened down
There’d be eight good men who would not have drowned

Oh Sydney waters are green and cold
Take life from men with a freezing hold
They say that men on the colliers drown
When the cargo rolls – not battened down

Oh beckoning lights of Sydney Town
Still beckoning men as the ship goes down
It is for the love of your winking lights
That colliers drown on lonely nights

credits

from Crossing the Line, released July 9, 2021
Merv Lilley 1963,
Tune Bill Berry

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Forty Degrees South image

Forty Degrees South Sydney, Australia

A Sydney folk group known from 1988 for their powerful impact when singing unaccompanied traditional songs.

Strong individual singers, the interplay of their combined voices makes for a distinctive sound.

Sea shanties and other songs of maritime and industrial history and union songs feature large in their repertoire, songs with a robust quality that tell of real people, their lives and work. ... more

contact / help

Contact Forty Degrees South

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Forty Degrees South recommends:

If you like Forty Degrees South, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now