Old North Sydney

Henry Lawson, 1904

      They're shifting old North Sydney,
      Perhaps 'tis just as well,
      They're carting off the houses
      Where the old folks used to dwell.
      Where only ghosts inhabit
      They lay the old shops low;
      But the Spirit of North Sydney,
      It vanished long ago.

      The Spirit of North Sydney,
      The good old time and style,
      It camped, maybe, at Crow's Nest,
      But only for a while.
      It left about the season,
      Or at the time, perhaps,
      When old Inspector Cotter
      Transferred his jokes and traps.

      A brand new crowd is thronging
      The brand new streets aglow
      Where the Spirit of North Sydney
      Would gossip long ago.
      They will not know to-morrow,
      Tho' 'twere but yesterday,
      Exactly how McMahon's Point
      And its ferry used to lay.

      The good old friendly spirit
      Its sorrows would unfold,
      When householders were neighbours
      And shop-keeping was old;
      But now we're busy strangers,
      Our feelings we restrain,
      The Spirit of North Sydney
      Shall never come again!