The Rawdon Hills (once were touched by gold).
I am, and have been for a long time, a huge fan of Stan Rogers. The very first album of his (I now have them all) was Fogerty’s Cove, and from that album (yes, it was vinyl that I bought) was a song called The Rawdon Hills.
One of my travel goals on this trip was to get a sense of the landscape that Stan wrote about. This song about Rawdon evoked such a vision in my mind. I wasn’t disappointed. The landscape is picturesque, and yes indeed, there are rolling hills carved through by roads.
It was exactly as I had imagined it.
Stan Rogers
Worn down shacks of labour past, on a hill of broken stone
Once brought by men to the stamping mills to crush away the gold
But before it could pass to their sons, the glory left the hole
The Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold
The grandsons of the mining men scratch the fields among the trees
When the gold played out, they were all turned out with
granite dusted knees
But at night around the stoves, sometimes the stories still unfold
How the Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold
Grandsons of the mining men, you’ll see it in your
Beneath your father’s bones still lies the undiscovered seam
Of Quartzite, in a serpentine vein that marks the greatest yield
And along the Midland railway, it’s still told
How the Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold
Eighty years has been and gone since there was color in the hole
And the careworn shades of the hard-rock men surround the old Cope lode
And through the tiny hillside farms, the miner’s tales grow old
The Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold