Although the Sydney Bulletin claimed businessmen at Coolgardie were on more payable claims than the diggers, they were not the only ones, according to E.G. ‘Dryblower’ Murphy, who wrote:
A few of the lucky have dropped in on a patch
And gone on a rollicking spree,
Where a woman is waiting the digger to catch
And ‘Gabbi’ is plentiful and free.
Some have remained, and hundreds have come
To follow the fossicking game,
While waiting for winter to roll up the ‘drum’
And hunt for a ‘Payable Claim’.
We mustn’t imagine the dish and the spade
Or the gold savers’ rattle and whiz
Are the means from which all fat shammies are
I’ll whisper the secret ‘ it’s ‘Biz’ mate.
The men who condense who are by the score
Find profit in crackle and flame,
For a shandygaff mixture half-fresh and half bore
Are working a ‘Payable Claim’.
There’s wealth to be gained by the emerald cloth
Where the noisy crowd gather and bet
And affluence gleams in the half pint of froth
That we drain at a shilling a wet.
The roguish-eyed maid who dispenses our drinks
And mixes a smile with the same
Oblivious quite at our innocent winks
Is manning a ‘Payable Claim’.
The swell in the flannels, the one with the cue
By a T’Othersider syndicate sent,
Is cutting it fat on a liberal screw
For billiards and pool he’s content.
He’ll prospect as far as the end of the street,
And return quite exhausted and lame,
But his salary brings solace that’s sweet
And provides him with a ‘Payable Claim’.
Moya Sharp
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