THE MAN FROM ALABAMA
OUR WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICY

An Australian poem by “J. Sweeney”

When dark Joe from Alabama met a girl from La Perouse,
They agreed upon a good time in the parks and at the Zoo.
Debating love and marriage and changes war would bring,
He stole his arm around her and offered her the ring.

She said:”To fall for your desires is something I’ll never do,
To disgrace my friends and relatives around by La Perouse,
You must know the picaninnies would be brindle, black or brown,
Then our White Australia policy would surely topple down.

“We won’t accept the Chinaman or tolerate the Japs,
And if we mate with black men, won’t our policy collapse?
I’ll wed a dinkum Aussie,and to him I will be true,
And help our White Australia around by La Perouse.”

Pausing for a moment, he said: “I know what I will do,
I’ll go home to Alabama, to the sweetest girl I know,
And when the war is over, it’s there we’ll settle down,
Then your White Australia policy won’t topple to the ground.”

James Sweeney was born in the West of Ireland in 1875. He came to Australia in 1930 and was one of a few to make his living by his verse between the wars. Unlike most poets, his book ‘Original Australian Verse’ was republished and expanded several times.  He returned to Ireland at the end of the Hitler war.  Nothing else is known of him.

He wrote in the tradition of Patterson and the bush ballad.  In my opinion he did this very badly.  He was a poor versifier, maudlin and sentimental, with little to say.  He was however,  popular in his time as his work was in regular demand.  This, I think, tells us as much about his audience as it does about the man himself.
Ira Maine, Poetry Editor