Project Tag: Australian Songs

Time is Running Out

Words by Alistair Hulett, music by Daniel Kelly

G         C      D      G
Time is running out for us
C                 D           G
Shadows getting longer every day,
     C     D         G     C
I need to find some self control,
              Em        C           D
To let those last few moments slip away
             G        C       D      G
It’s gonna break my heart to leave you,
       C                 D             G    C  D
But I think you’d only break it if I stay,

          G            C           D       G
There’s a torn flag nailed to a telegraph pole,
        C          D        G
On the edge of a rat-arsed town
    C      D             G       C
It used to fly over a castle of dreams
          Em              C     D
Before the walls came tumbling down


Nobody knows what’s gonna happen next,
Could be floods or it might be drought,
Only thing everyone knows for sure
Is time is running out.

I guess I always knew it would come to this,
The Wheels were set in spin,
Ever since we shared that first uncertain kiss
On the edge of the abyss

Down the street where I once was king
I feel invisible now
I once believed truth and honesty
were the only way to be free

But truth is just a place where contradictions
Cancel each other out.
That’s the only conclusion you can draw,
When time is running out.

(Word's slightly modified from the written notes 
published on the Alistair Hulett Memorial Trust Facebook page)

Crush the Union

     G        D               G
In January of two thousand eighteen
            C        D               G
Transport workers conditions were obscene
C                       D
Salaries replaced by contract
    Bm         Em
Overtime out of control,
     C                                 D
And ten years without a real increase in pay

            C      C         G
Crush the Union, Crush the Union
            G                  D
You don’t have the right to strike,
               G                  D
We’ll pay you what we damn well like,
        C                            D
Make worker’s rights a relic of the past,
            C      C         G
Crush the Union, Crush the Union,
G            D              G
Capital has won the war at last.

The Union made the call to strike,
24 hours of no work was sure to bite,
Sydney Trains force back
To sit at the table,
To negotiate a fair and living wage,

Andrew Constance was ready for a fight,
Taking from the union what should be their right,
To the commission he did go,
Lawyers in a row,
Fair Work such an ironic name,

Brisbane 1912 they wore a badge with pride,
Union members should never have to hide,
10,000 in King George Square,
Union power in the air,
They fought with courage for their right.

Up the Union, Up the Union,
We will keep our right to strike,
A fair wage is our right,
Worker’s together to the last,
Up the Union, Up the Union,
Solidarity our message from the past,