Written by: Kaitlyn Tomlinson, Danielle Tomlinson, Leah Daniel, Kelly Stoner. Performed by all the above with the gracious help of Pete Rundle on drums.
A small group of Bellingen youth have come together to write a song about the spirit of Bellingen in an attempt to help the Bellingen Hospital Action Group in their efforts to save the hospital’s present services.
The group has been collaborating with local singer-songwriting Kell Stoner and have come up with a song, exploring the story of the hospital through a historical perspective – collaborating on such aspects as the song’s structure, lyrics, recording, music and instrumentation.
In order to write the song the group researched local history through the library and the historical society and did a lot of talking to local people of the area that have lived here their whole lives and whose families have lived here for generations. After collecting initial information and inspiration, the song was written over a bunch of sessions over a couple of months –many of the lines in the song actually come from conversations with locals about times past...
With so much inspiration – the first draft of the song was 8 verses long – over 6 minutes! But after much deliberation and editing it was cut down to the most important 5 – there was so much information they wanted to put in – and it still extends to 4 minutes. Most of the tracks in the recording were also played by the young songwriters – including vocals, backing vocals piano and flute.
Thanks so much to the Bellingen Health Action Group who instigated this project, especially Kaye Foran, and the Bellingen and Seaboard Youth Services who supported it along the way!
Save Bellingen Hospital Song
They say the river was so deep
Your ears would almost burst
And they followed it through the dark woods
To find a dream of red gold
And they floated it back down the rover
Like the red tears, of the old ones
Settlement had begun
And with the men came the women,
And the children that they bore
Looking around they settled down,
Slab hut, dirt floor
And the midwife journeyed through the deep black scrub
She would be there, horseback mountains rivers flood
chorus
Because a town is built of wood and stone
But it takes commitment to build a home
The river changes, but it still flows on
Community grows, but it still stays strong
And a hospital was built, from the pockets of the people,
They paid a shilling a week, to keep it free
And the health care scheme, was so successful
It spread across the state and the country too
And there were, dances in the halls
They rode their pushbikes to the theatre
And the boats made their way
All the way up the river
But you could have heard a pin drop
The day the hippies came to town
Farmer’s jaws hit the floor
When a flood of colour arrived at the pub door
Nowdays town’s more a mixed back of faces
Farmers, life stylers, old local names
Self-sustainers, tree changers
And town brings them in from a far
chorus
Because a town is built of wood and stone
But it takes commitment to build a home
The river changes, but it still flows on
Community grows, but it still stays strong
Now the powers that be, want to scale that hospital
right right down
But the people of this town, like to stand their ground
Because if you take away the foundation stones
on which a community leans
You take away more than wood and stone
You take away a sense of community
You take away a sense of unity
chorus
Because a town is built of wood and stone
But it takes commitment to build a home
It takes so many hands to build
While it takes so few to tear it down
It takes so many hands to build
While it takes so few to tear it down
cause we have so many hands to hold
what it too so long to build
cause we have so many hands to hold
what we fought so long to keep
we have so many hands to hold
we have so many hands to hold |
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