Mondura Dam is a song by Andy Roberts and a place in Queensland Australia, also known as Lake Monduran. Australians seem to use the word “dam” to mean the whole body of water and surrounding environment, not just the engineering contruction that is the retaining wall, as other English speakers may have it.
Written at the location, the idea for the song originated from the rhythm of walking back down to the camp carrying a container full of water. The lyrics simply describe the notable characteristics of the nature reserve, and pose a simple question about the need for drinking water and how this balances against other concerns.
Mondura Dam Lyrics
When you dam a river, the valley forms a lake
The trees stand out like boat masts, how much water does it take
to feed a small town?
If you feed the magpies, they won’t leave you alone
Let’s go find some firewood, tonight we’ll be alone
under the starshine
Mondura Dam, that’s where I am, with my fire and my pan
I’m up on Mondura Dam
Pelicans are fishing, cruising up and down
When you stock a lake with fish then all the birds will come around
It’s easy living
As long as we have water, there’s no need to move on
and when we’ve finished cooking, we’ll throw all the firewood on
and watch it flare up
When you dam a river, the valley forms a lake
you may lose some woodland , but the natural park it makes
is free for everyone
Mondura Dam on the podcasts
I’ve played Mondura Dam once on Podcast episode 11, and also opened Episode 2 with the song.
Monduran Dam Videos
I don’t know which is the best video to illustrate Mondura Dam really, but this seems to be the only public live performance that’s made it to youTube, from July 2009 at Havering Folk Club.
Here are links to a few other versions.
July 2009 | October 2009 | July 2010 – 12string version | March 2010 | September 2010
This one is an mp3 recorded at Stratford Studios in 2001 : mondura_dam.mp3
This has been a post for Blog Action Day 2010 on the subject of Water tagged #BAD10
