Cross over the river the gold is waiting And it's years since the colour I've seen And it's no use just sitting and Lady Luck blaming I'll pack up and make the break clean Chorus Farewell to the gold that never I found Goodbye to the nuggets that somewhere abound For it's only when dreaming that I see the gleaming Down in the dark deep underground Well it's nearly two years since I left my own mother For adventure and gold by the pound And with Jimmy the prospector, he was another To the hill of Otago we were bound Chorus Well we worked the Cardona, dry valleys all over Old Jimmy Williams and me They were panning good dirt on the winding shot over So we headed down there just to see Chorus We sluiced and we cradled for day after day Making hardly enough to get by Then a terrible flood swept poor Jimmy away During six stormy days in July Chorus (x2)