[Intro]
[Verse]
I am living dry and placid now, among encircling mountains
An old man still remembering the days that used to be
But I close my eyes and live again, those days of sweat and laughter
When we worked the trochus luggers in the western Coral Sea
[Verse]
Sailing in a black hulled lugger with a lookout at the masthead
You may drift along the coral cays and anchor where you please
In the glassy leeside waters of some rocky offshore island
Though the outer reef be trembling under pounding whitened seas
[Chorus]
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
[Verse]
You may anchor calm and safely in the shallows over coral
Where the waters glimmer pea in a hundred shifting shades
You can hear the rippling wavelets tinkle gently on the beaches
And the stays and braces thrumming in the southeast trades
[Chorus]
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
[Verse]
To the north of Lizard Island and to the south of Iron Range
In my dreams I am returning to the place where I would be
To the laughing Torres Straitsmen singing softly in the twilight
To the trochus lugger s anchorage in Princess Charlotte Bay
[Chorus]
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...
Laddie oh..., Laddie ay...