Hard Time Home.
From the CD "WEST"

The story of Caroline Thomson one of the early settlers who endured the hardships of the Swan River Colony.

HARD TIME HOME © Bernard Carney Sept 97

Caroline Thomson the daughter of gentry

Married a soldier and followed her heart

Leaving behind her the life of a lady

Sailed to Fremantle to make a new start

Shipped on the wave of the swan river fever

Eleven young children and chattels in tow

The stars in their eyes were from new constellations

Which carried their hopes where they wanted to go

She followed her love to the harshest of countries which coloured their dreams for so long on the seas

But fantasy faded against the reality

Of canvas and brushwood and sand and disease

And life in the swan was so hard for a woman

With so many children and so much to do

Desperate times amongst desperate people

Where hardship was habit and pleasures were few

CHORUS

IN THIS HARD TIME HOME ACROSS THE OCEAN

WHERE THEIR HARD TIME SEEDS OF HOPE WERE SOWN

IN THIS HARD TIME HARD TIME HOME

And their fear of the black man was nurtured by rumour

Of Yagan’s reprisals and will to survive

So you finally fled to the island of Rottnest

Where children could wander and peace was assured

You scraped an existence where nothing was wasted

Not even the bitterness that you endured

Caroline Thompson the daughtr of gentry

The heart of a lady the hands of a slave

Cursing the dry soil the glare and the blindness

Eight years of cheating a beckoning grave

But this island of spirits became a new prison

To punish a people defending their ways

So you gathered your family and meagre possessions

And all that you left was your name on the bay

CHORUS

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