| Em ‑ C D | My grandmother was born in 1900, on a farm in New South Wales |
| Em ‑ C D | She wed a dairyman who liked to raise a pint of ale |
| C Bm D Am | The first child came when she was twenty, five more babes in seven years |
| G Bm C DEm | That first daughter was my mother: They called her Guinevere |
| Em ‑ C D | Little Gwen would play beneath the willow, "Yes the Queen would love some tea" |
| Em ‑ C D | Helped with chores that never ended, tried to mind, tried to please |
| C Bm D Am | Sometimes she heard the music, wild and strange in the summer night |
| G Bm C DEm | "They're dirty people" warned her mother, "Never go near their campfire light" |
| Em C | "Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas |
| Em Am | Little white girls have disappeared |
| G Bm | They drink and dance when the moon is red |
| C DEm | Better never let 'em see your golden hair" |
| Em ‑ C D | Came the winter of '27, so cold the milk froze in the pail |
| Em ‑ C D | Her mum hung the nappies by the hearth, her dad in town for a round of ale |
| C Bm D Am | A spark leapt from the fire that night, wrapped her mother in a gown of flame |
| G Bm C DEm | Flailing dancing in a frenzy, falling down in voiceless pain |
| Em ‑ C D | Stillness and the stench of burning, then so soft 'twas like a ghost |
| Em ‑ C D | "Fetch the Cunninghams" she whispered, "Bring me aid or I am lost" |
| C Bm D Am | The Cunningham house was not two miles away, and they the nearest whites |
| G Bm C DEm | Past the camp of the Aboriginals, past the demons of the night |
| Repeat Chorus | |
| Em ‑ C D | "I will run to save my mother, I must go now, I must fly" |
| Em ‑ C D | Still she heard her mother's tales of the Devil's drums and the evil eye |
| C Bm D Am | Her mother's breathing ever fainter, Gwen (was) frozen in her fright |
| G Bm C DEm | Seven hours till dawn she waited for the safety of the light |
| Am ‑ Bm ‑ | Now she runs till her feet are bleeding, to the house upon the hill |
| C Em D Em | Now comes the doctor's wagon speeding, to her mother cold and still |
| Em ‑ C D | They laid her down in the Nowra graveyard, from the Bible read a verse |
| Em ‑ C D | Children sent to aunts and uncles, some to Melbourne some to Perth |
| C Bm D Am | Gwen packed her canvas satchel, could not hold the salt tears back |
| G Bm C DEm | Turned to leave her home forever, faced a woman gnarled and black |
| Em ‑ C D | "Child our hearts are heavy, grieving for your loss |
| Em ‑ C D | We live so close by you, why did you not come to us? |
| C Bm D Am | We have salves to heal the burning, we have herbs to stop the pain |
| G Bm C DEm | We could have helped had we but known, to make your mother whole again" |
| Repeat Chorus |