Song created by an old Wardaman songman, possibly Paddy Mirin, who witnessed a WW ll  Japanese bomber arrive in the 1940s. Imagine witnessing and hearing this event from a distance.  He was witness also to the arrival of Dr Clyde Fenton, the first Flying Doctor.

Songmen and women rigidly passed on the traditional songs but also invented new ones. Yidumduma’s encyclopaedic mind remembers this song learned when he was around 10 years of age.

Japan conducted many air raids on Darwin and northern Australia, 1942-3. This video reminds us of the sacrifices made by Aboriginal people during WW11.

Related Links: Australian War Memorial

• Transcript:

This is a W​iba song

​that an old man showed me.

Back in the war time when I was a kid,

he sang and made up a lot of songs.

This is about a bomber, the first airplane 

they saw come across.

Dr. Fenton brought this little plane (also)…

They saw all these Japanese planes flying around.

And he made a song.

He was a great singer.  He died that old man

back in the 1940’s, when I was a kid.

This is the way he used to sing:

​Song:

engine gurragay      engine taking off

airglane gurragay    airplane taking off

ya ya ya ya  x 3              there you go

durrdud durrdud durrdud durru  x3     sound of the engine

burrbup burubup burrbup burubup      x3      sound of bombs hitting the ground

This is a song he made

back in the last war (WWII).

That’s quite a long while ago in 1940.

He made a lot of songs,

the others I don’t know.

I only stuck with this one.

They sound good, and are easy to pick up.

And he was a wonderful didg​eridoo player.

He had a good voice.