So in this song the protagonist is walking down the street when a recruitment agent said the "government is in need of men" , and it "will be a fine vacation" . The protagonist wondered "if I'm old enough to carry a gun, am I old enough to vote" - representing draft inequality, a topic which often came up in North American songs as well. He also pondered if he would be sent to fight in a "foreign land not warring with Australia" - obviously a reference to Vietnam. Interestingly, the narrator said that "if Australian soil we must defend then lets all volunteer" - which is a similar message to the Pete Seeger song "Bring Them Home", thus not a pacifist, but saying that the Vietnam War was not justified.
Also issued in the UK on the four-track EP Australian Broadside (CBS EP 6062, 1965; Sydney Town / Son of Mine / Roar of the Crowd / Conscription Ramp), with Les Miller (banjo, 6 and 12 string guitar) and Richard Brooks (harmonica); produced by Sven E. Libaek; April Music. The EP label prints the title as "Conscription Ramp", its sleeve as "The Conscription Camp". The pictures are of the UK four-track EP: CBS EP 6062, "Extended Play", 45, side B, April Music, production Sven E. Libaek, ℗ 1965, made in England; "Roar of the Crowd" (Dennis Kevans) / "Conscription Ramp" (Shearston); Gary Shearston, acc. Les Miller (banjo, 6 & 12 string guitar), Richard Brooks (harmonica). The front cover, "Australian Broadside – Contemporary songs from the Australian Folk Song Revival", shows Shearston against a stone wall beside the title cut into a map of Australia. The back lists Side 1: Sydney Town; Son of Mine, Side 2: Roar of the Crowd; Conscription Camp, with notes by Edgar Waters calling "The Conscription Camp" "Shearston's own comment on conscription"; its words owe something to the Irish song 'The Recruiting Sergeant', first heard from Declan Affley, and its tune to an Australian version of the English folk song 'The Derby Ram'. [From the record sleeve and labels]
Born 9 January 1939 in Inverell, NSW, Australia. He died 1 July 2013, Tenterfield, NSW, Australia