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Maralinga Lyrics

I come from a land of wide open spaces
Where the world turns around us and we just follow suit
There's heat in the air and peace reigns supreme
Got white flags on the clothes lines and the deals are new

In the wind
The ashes fly
The poison crown
The charcoal ground

And if you can't see the smile in me, that's where I wanna be

There's only God
There's only Christ
Think I'll lie down for just a while

And the grass became granite
And the sky a black sheet
Our bed was a graveyard
We couldn't feel our blistered feet
And the moaning and groaning and sighing of death
And the silence that followed
And the very harsh reality

So watch and check them out and listen as we learn
Throw the pearls before the swine ebb and flow, turning tide
Yes we watch and catch them no matter how they jump
The pigs will have to come to ground, we've got to make it happen
It's really not that new, try and make it happen now
'cos what are we to do, maybe there's a chance for you

All around
An eerie sound
Their dreams a cloud
Their world in shrouds
In the wind
The ashes fly
Not much time
But time to try
And if you can't see the smile in me, that's cos I wanna be
I want to be here at the end. I have to be here at the end
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Cover art for Maralinga lyrics by Midnight Oil

This song really rattles me. Maralinga was the site for British Atomic Tests in the 50s and 60s, and it appalls me to think of the damage that was wreaked by a programme that was eventually to prove pointless.

It was reported by scientists on the site that when they went to investigate Ground Zero for many tests, they discovered Aborigines camping in the craters caused by the explosions codenamed "Kittens" "Rats" "Vixens" or "Tims".

For further information on testing Britain's bomb, I recommend the book "Fields of Thunder" by Denis Blakeway and Sue Lloyd-Roberts.

Thank god for bands like Midnight Oil

Couldn't have said it better myself. One of Midnight Oil's saddest, most beautiful and yet haunting songs.

 
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