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The Rabbit Proof Fence

by Roy Griffiths

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about

During a visit to The Wheat Belt of Western Australia to visit my step-daughter and her partner who is a grain farmer we were taken out to look at the wild flowers that were in season. We drove alongside this beaten up fence and when we were told what is was I did some research when I got home and it inspired me to write this song.

Rabbits were first introduced in Australia in 1788 for their meat, and originally bred in rabbit farms and enclosures, until one October morning in 1859, when an English settler by the name of Thomas Austin released twenty-four wild rabbits on his property so that his guest could entertain themselves by hunting. Now we all know what rabbits are good at . . .so within ten years, their numbers reached such high figures that even after trapping and shooting up to two million rabbits a year, no noticeable effect was seen in their population.
Something had to be done. . .
Stretching from north to south across Western Australia, dividing the entire continent into two unequal parts, is a flimsy barbed-wire fence that runs for a total length of 3,256 km (over 2,000 miles). The fence was erected in the early 1900s to keep wild rabbits out of farm lands on the western side of the continent. Today, the Rabbit Proof fence, now called the State Barrier Fence, stands as a barrier to entry against all invasive species such as dingos, kangaroos and emus, which damage crops, as well as wild dogs which attack livestock.

lyrics

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies
Hard earth and darn great rocks
We've got to build this bloomin' fence
Keep rabbits off the crops

'Cross the state from north to south
Mesh fence to keep out pests
Four inch posts twelve feet apart
Split white gum is the best

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies . . .

Work is tough, the sun it burns
We dig with pick and shovel
Dust in lungs from dry red dirt
And sweating like the devil

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies . . .

Camels, horses, donkeys too
All have played their role
Deadly snakes and bushfires,
Lack of water took their toll

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies . . .

Rabbits, emus, dingos too
The mighty kangaroo
Port Headland down to Esperance
No creature will get through

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies . . .

Six long years we laboured on
Six long years of hell
As monument to all our toil
The rabbit fence stands still

CHORUS: Damn this heat and blast these flies . . .

credits

released July 3, 2020

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Roy Griffiths Telford, UK

As a folk singer / songwriter my songs are mainly written in the folk style.
I also perform traditional and contemporary songs and accompany myself with the melodeon. I will occasionally use the addition of a backing track.

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