Using Songs to Teach History
Big Poll the Grogseller gets up every day
And her small rowdy tent sweeps out…
…For Polly’s good looking and Polly is young.
And Polly’s possessed of a smooth oily tongue.
And I said, right there’s another one, don’t
you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a tale
they won’t believe,
When I get down to Hobart town
We are, we are, the Third Light Horse Brigade.
We face the odds with ne’er a man afraid
We’re the poor, the huddled masses
We have crossed the lonely sea
Left the old world for the new world
Left the old ways to be free.
It‘s a permanent job, it's a
permanent strain
She's a permanent woman, and
it's a permanent pain
The canals and the bridges, the
embankments and cuts,
They blasted and dug with their sweat
and their guts
They never drank water but whiskey by
pints.
And the shanty towns rang with their
songs and their fights.
Yo-ho you Queensland Whalers, you've
cut the sugar cane
You've driven herds of cattle o'er the dry
and dusty plain
You've dug the ore at Isa, laid countless
miles of rail
And now you've come to Moreton Bay to
catch a Humpback Whale
All historical sources can be used in the same ways.
Songs are no different with the bonus - they are Entertaining
INFORMATION
Implicit/Explicit
Facts (true or otherwise)
NB To reduce the size of the
Powerpoint many songs and
videos have been removed
and replaced with a
comment in blue to stating
what would have been
shown.
INSIGHT/EMPATHY
What was it like?
BIAS
Everyone has bias.
Whose Point of View?
MYTHS
Reinforcing or Busting?
PIQUING INTEREST
Why is it so?
NUMERACY SKILLS
Graphs and Statistics.
LISTENING SKILLS
Active listening, summarising, rephrasing.
Also in blue are some
explanations of how I use
each slide in class.
CLASSROOM USE
Background music while students are working.
Medieval songs.
Illustrating the songs using PowerPoint or Moviemaker.
Adding facts/quotes etc. to the images.
Using the songs to develop literacy /numeracy
Finding the meaning of new words.
Exploring the numbers in songs.
Listening Skills
Active Listening, Summarising, Rephrasing, New Experiences.
Using the songs to focus further research.
Question sheets leading students to do further research.
Analysing songs in detail.
Implicit and explicit information.
Background music while students are working.
Medieval songs.
QUEEN JANE (Lionel Long)
One of the few folk songs about Royalty
One of the few that lasted centuries and was
performed by Joan Baez, Lionel Long et al.
WANTON FLING
(Whistlebinkies)
One who attends a penny wedding, but without paying anything, and therefore has no right to take any share of the
entertainment; a mere spectator who is, as it were, left to sit on a bench by himself, and who, if he pleases, may whistle
for his own amusement".
QUAN VEY LA LAUZETA
Medieval Babes
Illustrating the songs using PowerPoint or
Moviemaker.
Adding facts/quotes etc. to the images.
Show video of “Balaena”. Showing how a song can be
illustrated with historic images.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6OYb_7bhME
Using the songs to focus further research.
Question sheets leading students to do further research.
Analysing songs in detail.
Implicit and explicit information.
Using the songs to develop literacy /numeracy
Finding the meaning of new words.
Exploring the numbers in songs.
Listening Skills
Active Listening, Summarising, Rephrasing, New Experiences.
Show videos from History Teachers Youtube channels. They are a psi of History
teachers from Hawaii the create modern type video clips by using modern songs
but rewording them to cover a particular part of history.
http://www.youtube.com/user/historyteachers
PAY
The sailor in “Maggie May” was paid £2/10/- a month.
Use http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/
The following are samples
of questions given to
students when investigating
particular songs.
What is £2/10/- worth in today’s money?
___________________________________________________________________________________
What could it buy in the 1830s/1840s?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Given that the sailor would not have had to buy any food or accommodation whilst at sea:
Is £2/10/- a month a good wage? Is it historically accurate or does it just fit the meter of the song?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Jim Jones at Botany Bay
Jim Jones is also one of the oldest Australian songs.
Poaching was common crime in England so poachers should make a large proportion of
convicts.
Work out the percentage of convicts who were Poachers
Convicts transported for Poaching was 300 out of 165 000 total convicts.
300 ÷165,000 x 100 ÷ 1 = _____0.18______%
OR
Does this make Jim Jones a “Typical” convict? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Is 500 soldiers on the convict ship a realistic number? Why?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
FLOGGING
During all the years of transportation statistically 25% of convicts were flogged with a an
average of 46 lashes. Although harsh by today’s standards, flogging was a common
punishment in the Navy and Army as well. A flogged man would be back at work within a
few days to a week. Large sentences of 150-200+ were often delivered over several days or
it would kill the prisoner – this sometimes being the intention.
Do the Maths
25% x 165000 convicts =
41 250
convicts flogged.
Multiply the number of convicts by 46 to see the total lashes delivered.
46 x ___1 897 500_________ = total lashes.
There is 1,000,000 seconds in about 11.5 days.
At one per second – approximately how long would it take to deliver the total number
of lashes?
___________20.7____________ Days
_____3___________ Weeks
The whip used to flog prisoners was a Cat o’ Nine Tails. That is, it was made up of nine
leather strips. Some were made with three knots or pieces of lead at the end of each cord.
Multiply the total number of lashes by 9 to see how many lashes were really delivered.
__________17 077 500_______________
Using the songs to focus further research.
Question sheets leading students to do further research.
DATING SONGS
One way to date a song if it is not known for certain is to look for words/phrases that were new at the time. One is
Sydney Cove which was settled in 1788. So the song must be younger than 1788. The other is “Bobby” for a
policeman.
Why was the policeman called a “Bobby”(they still are in England)?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
When were the first Police called “Bobbies”? This will give another key date.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
When did transportation to Sydney and Van Diemen’s land stop?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
These will only give you the maximum age of the song. It could have been written yesterday.
What other clues are there to suggest the song is old?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
How else could you find the age of song if it wasn’t dated?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Analysing songs in detail.
Implicit and explicit information.
INFORMATION
Implicit/Explicit
Facts (true or otherwise)
Numeracy Skills.
“And two pound ten a month was all my pay”
(Maggie May) Is this a realistic wage?
“They'll be down in Stanley's hock-shop number nine” (Maggie
May) The sailor in the song has his clothes stolen by Maggie. Is this the first time she has
done it?
“But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong”
(Jim Jones at Botany Bay) Unlikely, the convict ships held only a few hundred all up.
INSIGHT/EMPATHY
What was it like?
It's very unpleasant as I remember
To sit in the stocks in the month of December
The wind is so hot with the sun right o'er
Sure, it's no place for a lover.
"It's worse than the treadmill", says I, "Mr Dunn,
For to sit here all day in the heat of the sun",
"Either that or a dollar", says he, "for your folly".
"If I had a dollar I'd drink it with Molly."
(Currency Lasses)
MYTHS
Reinforcing or Busting?
“For you stole Trevelyan's corn, so the young might see the
morn.”
(Fields of Athenry)
“We’re horsemen from Australia of the good old British breed,
We rallied to the colours when we heard the Empire’s need”
(Marching Song of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade)
Sergeant Small
When we got into Roma I kept my head down low
I heard a voice say "Any room Mate?" I answered "Plenty Bo"
"Come out of there my noble man" came the voice of Sergeant
Small
"I have trapped you very nicely - you've ridden for a fall”
This story travelled all over Australia but has very little truth and may have happened
but not as regularly as the song suggests.
The Railways and the Police in general were fairly sympathetic to the swagmen.
When they weren’t sympathetic there was no need for disguises.
A Tale They Won’t Believe.
We left Macquarie Harbour it was in the pouring rain
None of us quite sure if we would see England again
Some fool muttered death or liberty
There was six of us together a jolly hungry crew
And as the days went by you know our hunger quickly
grew
Some fool muttered death or liberty
So that night we made fires out of twigs and out of bark
And our stomaches they were grumbling all through the
night so dark
We were only trying to keep our selves alive
But when the sun came up next morning well the six had
turned to five
And I said, right there’s another one, don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a tale they won’t
believe,
When I get down to Hobart town
All five of us were nervous and I'll tell you that’s a fact
But you should have seen the bastard who was carrying the
axe
He was a sick man he had murder in his heart
And then we reached the Franklin River, and it took two
days to cross
We were wet and almost starving. And for food we’re at a
loss
We were hungry men with murder on our minds.
So that night we made a fire out of twigs and out of bark
And our stomachs they were rumbling all through the night
so dark,
And they were making noises that death could not ignore
And when the sun came up next morning, The five had
turned to four!
And I said, right there’s another one, don’t you frown,
Chew the meat and hold it down, It’s a tale they won’t
believe,
When I get down to Hobart town
BIAS
Opinions are like watches - Everyone has one and
everyone thinks theirs is right.
“They'll flog the poaching out of you out there at
Botany Bay” (Jim Jones at Botany Bay)
“I'll kill the tyrants one by one and shoot the floggers
down” (Jim Jones at Botany Bay)
Analysing songs in detail.
Implicit and explicit information.
Showing how a song came into being.
World War I (1914-1918)
• An overview of the causes of World War I and the reasons why men enlisted to
fight in the war.
• The places where Australians fought and the nature of warfare during World War I,
including the Gallipoli campaign.
• The impact of World War I, with a particular emphasis on Australia (such as the use
of propaganda to influence the civilian population, the changing role of women, the
conscription debate)
• The commemoration of World War I, including debates about the nature and
significance of the Anzac legend.
The 3rd Light Horse Brigade
The Nek
Consequences
Song and Statistics
The First Wave – 8LHR
Show video of attack at the Nek
from the film “Gallipoli”
Anthill – “The Attack Must Proceed”
Show video of Anthill saying the
“Attack Must Proceed” from the film
“Gallipoli”
8th & 10th Light Horse Regiments
8th Regiment Deaths
10th Regiment Deaths
Total 8th & 10th Deaths
Give the students the raw
data for these graphs and
get them to graph it
themselves
The Nek
Rest of the
War
8th & 10th Light Horse Regiments
8th Regiment Wounded
10th Regiment Wounded
The Nek
The Nek
Rest of the
War
Rest of the
War
Give the students the raw
data for these graphs and
get them to graph it
themselves
8th & 10th Light Horse Regiments
8th Regiment The Nek
Give the students the raw
data for these graphs and
get them to graph it
themselves
10th Regiment The Nek
Total 8th & 10th The Nek
Casualties
NonCasualties
Major General John Macquarie Antill,
Major General John Macquarie Antill, Jr. CB, CMG (26 January 1866 – 1 March 1937)
During the fierce fighting at The Nek, Antill, was in temporary command of the Brigade, he refused a request from the commander of the
10th Light Horse to cancel the third wave. Colonel Hughes had gone forward to call off the attack, leaving Antill in charge. Due to a
communications breakdown, Antill believed Hughes had gone forward to lead the Brigade forward and therefore ordered the attack to
continue. Hughes reached the line in time to call off the fourth wave.
On 1 January 1916, Antill was promoted to colonel and temporary brigadier general and confirmed in command of 3rd Light Horse. The
brigade was placed in the rear and for a time took over part of the defence of No. 2 Section of the Suez Canal defences.
In an effort to rebuild the 3rd Light Horse Brigade after the withdrawal from Gallipoli in December 1915, the
GOC, Brigadier General Antill turned to music to assist in the bonding process. Selecting the music to the
popular American Civil War tune, "Marching through Georgia", was the easy part. To play the tune, the 8th
Light Horse Regiment band was reconstituted and began rehearsing on 12 January 1916. Within in two days,
the band gave their first performance. To generate additional enthusiasm, on 16 January 1916, Antill
announced a competition for an aspiring poet within the Brigade to put words to the tune which were
distinctly Australian. As an added incentive, a prize of one guinea [£1/1/- or in 2008 AUD, about $420] was
offered for the best entry. The prize was claimed a week later. The song is on the next page.
In August was the brigade released to join the Anzac Mounted Division at Romani, too late to be decisive, and
nearly too late to join the battle at all. Antill's only major action during the battle was at Bir el Abd on 5
August 1916. Antill began by piercing the Turkish flank and overrunning the Turkish position at Hamisah,
taking some 425 prisoners. While reforming after the engagement his regiments came under light shell fire,
and Antill decided to fall back. He appeared to have lost his nerve. Antlll's actions cost Major General Chauvel
vital hours and led to the removal of 3rd Light Horse from the line.
Only days after Romani, General William Birdwood sent a message requesting Antill take command of an
infantry brigade on the Western Front. Antill elected to go and handed over command of his brigade on 9
August. He was immediately given command over the 2nd Infantry Brigade. Antill became ill and was
evacuated sick to England in November 1916. He returned to France on 20 March 1917 and took command of
the 16th Infantry Brigade which was forming in England as part of the new 6th Division.
Listen to the Song
click on the icon
Marching Song of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade
We’re horsemen from Australia of the good old British breed,
We rallied to the colours when we heard the Empire’s need,
You bet we’re out to play the game, and if we don’t succeed,
We’ll join our mates who took the count before us.
CHORUS:
We are, we are, the Third Light Horse Brigade.
We face the odds with ne’er a man afraid,
We lost our gallant comrades and there’s many a score unpaid,
Undaunted still we’re out for what’s before us.
Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Signallers, Field Ambulance and Train
We did our bit at Anzac, where we’d like to go again,
For though we got it in the NEK, we’ll fight with might and main,
To square our mates who took the count before us.
Send the news to Kitchener, tell Birdwood with a snap,
Say that we Australian boys are busting for a scrap.
We want to tackle Germany and wipe her off the Map,
Then toast our mates who took the count before us.
Marching Song of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade
1.
Why do you think Anthill chose a song to unite the Brigade?
2.
Why did the Brigade need to unite? Hint how much of the original Brigade was left after Gallipoli?
3.
What part of the song refers to the battle at the Nek?
4.
Why do you think the author included such a disaster?
5.
A Guinea was a day’s pay for a trooper in the Light Horse. Why do you think Anthill offered such a big prize?
6.
“Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Signallers, Field Ambulance and Train.” What do each of these mean?
7.
“Send the news to Kitchener, tell Birdwood with a snap” Who was Kitchener and Birdwood?
8.
“We’re horsemen from Australia of the good old British breed”. Why British not Australian?
9.
“We rallied to the colours when we heard the Empire’s need”. What does “colours” mean in this line.
10.
Why do you think Anthilll had “lost his nerve”.
11.
Why do you think he was moved to the Western Front where he would be in charge of infantry and not Light Horse?
12.
Find out more about the battle of Hamisah. Why was Anthill criticised for his actions? What is needed for a Light horse commander
that Anthill lacked?
Thirty Ton Line
Tugs and Tragedy
With this song I start with only the song and no lyrics. I then give the students the
lyrics and they have to do the research to find out where the song was set, what
event it describes and how accurately. They use this information to create a 35th
anniversary news paper lift out.
Thirty ton line
Don Henderson
Purpose-built tugs with line boats attending
Berth big, bulk coal-carriers in open seas,
To fulfill that function, the union contended
Required four deckhands, Fenwick’s said three.
Three deckhands and a motorman just couldn’t handle
Sixteen inch polyprop double dead-eyes.
When the tow-hook was blacked, the company gambled
On a tension winch, ten inch calm sea compromise.
Broadsound, Belyando, Nebo, Serina
The sea snaps your hawsers like thin strands of twine.
Broadsound, Belyando, Nebo, Serina
Hundred-tons bollard-pull thirty-ton line.
The Martha was cleared just as our line had parted,
The Academy Star was on wharf number one,
Though the help we could offer was nought but a token
In her state, that help would be better than none.
Time and again we tried to position
To get her away with all possible speed,
But with jury-rigged lines and in such bad conditions,
Two deckhands and a motorman couldn’t succeed.
Only part loaded and riding high in the water
The Academy Star could not be controlled,
The strong on-shore wind had her hard on the quarter
She slammed at the pylons ‘till her hull had holed.
But still Utah’s bosses and those who do their will,
Put tugs to sea short on gear, undermanned;
One million dollars will be the repair bill,
They’d pay that in preference to one more deckhand.
At two in the morning we made fast the Martha,
At nine the Academy Star had been berthed;
Then all tugs and line-boats returned to the harbour Their work being
finished the crews then dispersed.
The red words are not highlighted for the students, but
But at five the same evening storm warnings were sounding
show the key bits that tell where the song was set.
Cyclone approaching, no time for delay,
Cyclones occur in Australia
At their berths the big bulkies were taking a pounding,
Hay Point is in MacKay Qld
Broadsound and Belyando must get them away.
To Hay Point all on the two tugs went thrashing,
Got lines in the Martha at wharf number two,
Though twelve foot green water on their decks was crashing
The order “Use maximum power” had come through.
With the whole hull vibrating and the tension winch screaming
Then came the moment all tug-men dread,
The sudden lurch forward and the broken line whipping
The thoughts of old ship mates, the injured, the dead.
Broadsound, Belyando, Nebo, Serina are the names of the
tugboats and the first two still exist. They are also suburbs of
Mackay.
From there the Port of Mackay has a timeline that shows
cyclone damage of $1 000 000 in 1979 after Cyclone Kerry.
From here is relatively easy to research “Cyclone Kerry”.
The song was written accurately and was purposely biased
and pro union.
http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/transcripts/00004975.pdf
Canberra Times 2 March 1979
Cyclone Kerry
Kerry crossed the coast near Proserpine. In Mackay one house suffered extensive
damage and 26 houses lost parts of their roofs. A large section of roof was torn off a
warehouse and caravans were damaged. Power lines were blown down. At Seaforth
16 m trees were uprooted.
The Mackay Met Office recorded a maximum wind gust of 76 knots while the highest
10 minute mean wind was 50 knots. Huge seas caused 1 million 1979 dollars damage
to boats in the harbour.
On Brampton Is. the staff quarters were unroofed and many trees were blown down
and a storm surge there brought the sea one metre above the highest recorded tide
level.
Hayman Is also reported a one metre storm surge. The Mackay Eungella road was cut
by fallen trees and landslides and floods cut the Bruce Highway.
The Mackay wave recording station measured significant wave heights to 4.02 metres
maximum height 5.91metres and peak energy period 9.19 seconds
http://hardenup.org/be-aware/weather-events/events/1970-1979/cyclone-kerry.aspx
GEOGRAPHY
Cyclone season - Graeme Connors
Illustrate with pictures and facts about cyclones.
Use video about cyclone Tracy for extra information.
Putamayo Music
Music from the Tea Lands
Music from the Coffee Lands
Music from the Chocolate Lands
http://www.putumayo.com/
Music as background facts and pictures about the manufacture
culture and working life behind these products.
Some of My Favourites
Currency Lasses
A light hearted look at love and life as a convict.
New Exhibits
During the General strike of 1917. Strike breakers were house at the Sydney
Zoo. This song is from the point of view of the Monkey and fox at the Zoo.
Gum Tree With Six Branches
One of the few Federation songs worth remembering. Others were a bit over the top.
Big Poll the Grog Seller
A positive song about women and one of their roles on the goldfields.
I’ve Been to Australia O
A tongue twisting look at Gold Field prices.
Mark Riggs
Maffra Secondary College
riggs.mark.a@edumail.vic.gov.au
Please email me if you need any resources or
have any questions.