Words and Music © 1999 Bill Scott
A prime reason for finally extending a tour to Australia was to meet Mavis and Bill Scott, with whom I had corresponded and shared music for so many years.
He lived his last years in Warwick, but when he died in 2005, the family took his ashes North and scattered them by the Johnstone River near Mt. Tully, the area that he loved so well. I learned the song from Penny Davies and Roger Illott, though it's in Bill's songbook.
Gordon – 12-String guitar
I've wandered East, I've wandered West
From the Hamersley Range to the Snowy Crest
From the Lachlan Plains to the Broken Hill
But my heart's at the Johnstone River still
Now the time has come when I must return
Where the vine scrub grows and the canefres burn
Where the vine scrub grows and the canefires burn
By the Yarra now the cold rain falls
And the wind is bleak from the Bass Strait squalls
I stand and wonder in the chill
Has the season started at Mulgrave Hill?
For Autumn comes and I must return
Where the harvesters chug and the trashfires burn
Where the harvesters chug and the trashfires burn
The smog is thick and stings the eye
Where the Harbour Bridge fills half the sky
And the sirens wail through Sydney town
But I dream of Tully when the sun goes down
Where the rainforest covers the hills with green
The cane grows tall and the air is clean
The cane grows tall and the air is clean
I've been wandering South and West
On land and sea, but the North is best
Now Autumn comes with its hint of snows
And I must follow where the egret goes
To watch the evening's first faint star
From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah
From Flying Fish Point or Yarrabah
Where the Cane Fires Burn is recorded on the album In Concert and is also in the songbook Hey Rain!