Lyrics
Ooh Ah-ah Two folds of the sea Before there were names on a mariner's chart Before there were towers of stone The Thaua knew every river and beach And the seasons that carried them home
They watched for the whales beyond the heads Read the wind and the turn of the tide With the mountains standing behind them And the long blue water outside
Years leave their marks upon the shore Then the water takes them away
Two folds of the sea Holding the mountains and sky Two arms opening out to the east Where the wandering oceans lie
Sails have come and fortunes have gone Names have risen and fallen away But the rivers still run to the waiting blue And the tide comes home to the bay
Bass came south in an open boat With a wild coast under his bow He traced two reaches into the land And gave them the name we know now
Then Flinders returned with the charts and lines Sounding the water below But what they could measure from timber and sail I can see in a single slow climb
Ah-ah Over the water
Two folds of the sea Holding the mountains and sky Two arms opening out to the east Where the wandering oceans lie
Sails have come and fortunes have gone Names have risen and fallen away But the rivers still run to the waiting blue And the tide comes home to the bay
Then came the boats when the whales came through Men pulling hard from the shore And black fins cutting the silver swell Where they had hunted long before
The killers drove the great whales in And the lookout cried from the land Old Tom would rise in the morning light With the whaleboats close at hand
There were stories told by the oldest people Long before those stations were made Of people and killers sharing the water In the deep green folds of the bay
Then Boyd came dreaming a harbour town Where the bush ran down to the sand A road from the Monaro over the range And ships for a far wider land
They raised the Inn above the beach Built stores and a wharf by the sea The Seahorse steamed into Twofold Bay And a town rose suddenly
Sandstone walls and a grand design Wool coming down from the plains But money ran out and the ships moved on And the bush took the streets back again
Two folds of the sea Holding the mountains and sky Two arms opening out to the east Where the wandering oceans lie
Dreamers have come with maps in their hands And watched all their plans wash away But the rivers still run to the waiting blue And the tide comes home to the bay
Now I rise where no sailor could rise Above the roofs and the trees Nullica turning through open ground Then losing itself in the sea
The Seahorse lies in the afternoon light The beach bends away to the north Forest and ranges fade into blue And the Tasman stretches beyond
From up here the centuries gather One shore, one water, one sky Every story becomes just a moment As the coastline passes beneath me
Some built their towers to master the coast Some came for timber and whales Some crossed the water with nothing but hope Some vanished and left only tales
Stone can endure and names can remain But neither can order the sea The bay keeps no ledger of triumph or loss It simply remembers quietly
Two folds of the sea Holding the mountains and sky Two arms opening out to the east Where the wandering oceans lie
Thaua and whalers, sailors and kings Dreamers who came here to stay Their voices grow faint but the water rolls on And the tide comes home to the bay
Two folds of the sea Under the evening sun The mountains grow dark and the gulls turn home Another long day is done
Whatever we build, whatever we name Whatever we carry away The rivers still run to the waiting blue And the tide comes home to the bay
Ooh Two folds of the sea
The years move on
And the bay remembers them all