Lyrics
The wind was here before them The granite before the name And the sea kept taking sailors Till somebody brought a flame
They started back in forty-six High upon the sand Dug down looking for the bedrock Twenty metres by hand
Money disappeared below them Still the solid ground wouldn't show So they left a hole on Gaybo And nowhere for the light to go
Then Monumental City Struck Tullaberga stone Thirty-three went into darkness Five miles from Gaybo
So they brought a tower from Sydney Timber painted red and white And in November fifty-three Flinders showed her light
But the stone remembers Every hammer, every hand Every man who worked the quarry On that hard and windy land
Names can fade from ledgers Men can disappear from sight But the stone remembers Who built the southern light
By fifty-nine came drawings For a tower built to stay Maplestone drew the red stone Where the southern waters lay
Then Huckson took the tender Fourteen thousand, nine-fifty pounds And the hammers rang on Gaybo From the quarry to the ground
Five-ton blocks in the lower courses Some were closer still to eight Cut and dressed from island granite Every joint had to sit straight
And the stone remembers Every hammer, every hand Every man who worked the quarry On that hard and windy land
Names can fade from ledgers Men can disappear from sight But the stone remembers Who built the southern light
The food came dear and poorly And the masons had their say Higher wages meant near nothing When the store took it away
Huckson lost a fortune Seven thousand by the end And Cairns and Mills took up the work He couldn't carry again
No brass band met the workers No names carved in the wall Just pink dust in their clothing And a tower growing tall
Maybe they cursed the weather Maybe they dreamed of home Maybe one looked up one evening At the tower above the foam
And knew his hands had left something That the years could never hide A piece of Gaybo standing Against the wind and tide
By May the stone was finished The lantern waited high Chance Brothers glass above them Forty-seven metres in the sky
Then twentieth of August Eighteen sixty-two They lit the light on Gaybo And the dark gave way to view
The timber light went silent The granite took its place Pink stone out of Gaybo Looking back across her face
And the stone remembers Every hammer, every hand Every man who worked the quarry On that hard and windy land
Names can fade from ledgers Men can disappear from sight But the stone remembers Who built the southern light
Oh the stone remembers Through the winter and the rain Every block they cut from Gaybo Still standing there today
And long after the builders Had gone beyond our sight The stone kept their story And Gaybo kept the light
Pink stone in the weather Pink stone by the sea
The men are gone from Gaybo
But their hands are still there In the light