Our money’s all spent, to the deuce went it!The landlord, he looks glum,On the tap-room wall, in a very bad scrawl,He has chalked to us a sum.But a glass we’ll take, ere the grey dawn break,And then saddle up and away-Theodolite-tum, theodolite-ti, theodolite-too-ral-ay. With a measured beat fall our horses’ feet,Galloping side by side;When the […]

Oh, my name is Bob the Swagman, before you all I stand,And I’ve had many ups and downs while travelling through the land.I once was well-to-do, my boys, but now I am stumped up,And I’m forced to go on rations in an old bark hut. Chorus In an old bark hut. In an old bark […]

I’ve had all sorts of luck, sometimes bad, sometimes better,But now I have somebody’s luck and my own,For I stooped in the street and I picked up a letter,Which some one had written to send away home. The old adage says, “What you find, you may keep it,”And as most of these old sayings are […]

I’ve shore at Burrabogie, and I’ve shore at Toganmain,I’ve shore at big Willandra and upon the old Coleraine,But before the shearin’ was over I’ve wished myself back,againShearin’ for old Tom Patterson, on the One Tree Plain. Chorus All among the wool, boys,Keep your wide blades full, boys,I can do a respectable tally myself whenever I […]

Oh, we started down from Roto when the sheds had all cut out.We’d whips and whips of Rhino as we meant to push about,So we humped our blues serenely and made for Sydney town,With a three-spot cheque between us, as wanted knocking down. Chorus But we camped at Lazy Harry’s, on the road to GundagaiThe […]

All you on emigration bent,With home and England discontent,Come, listen to my sad lament,All about the bush of Australia.I once possessed a thousand pounds.Thinks I-how very grand it soundsFor a man to be farming his own groundsIn the beautiful land of Australia. Chorus Illawarra, Mittagong,Parramatta, Wollongong.If you wish to become an ourang-outang,Then go to the […]

Dwell, not with me,For you’ll never seeMore than a ‘possum or a kangaroo,And now and then a cockatoo. Oh, would you wish,Without a dish,Your scanty meal from a piece of bark,And a wood fire to illume the dark. ‘Tis there you’d mourn,‘Tis there you’d mournThe sweet woodbineThat round your lattice now doth twine. Fond friends, […]

Travellers approaching a bush township are sure to find some distance from the town a lonely public-house waiting by the roadside to give them welcome. Thirsty (miscalled Thursday) Island is the outlying pub of Australia. When the China and British-India steamers arrive from the North the first place they come to is Thirsty Island, the […]

The first step in amateur gardening is to sit down and consider what good you are going to get by it. If you are only a tenant by the month, as most people are, it is obviously not of much use for you to plant a fruit orchard or an avenue of oak trees. What […]

The sporting men of Mulligan’s were an exceedingly knowing lot; in fact, they had obtained the name amongst their neighbours of being a little bit too knowing. They had “taken down” the adjoining town in a variety of ways. They were always winning maiden plates with horses which were shrewdly suspected to be old and […]

The typical Australian bullock — long-horned, sullen-eyed, stupid, and vindictive — is bred away out in Queensland, on remote stations in the Never Never land, where men live on damper and beef, and occasionally eat a whole bottle of hot pickles at a sitting, simply to satisfy their craving for vegetable food. Here, under the […]

People have got the impression that the merino is a gentle, bleating animal that gets its living without trouble to anybody, and comes up every year to be shorn with a pleased smile upon its amiable face. It is my purpose here to exhibit the merino sheep in its true light. First let us give […]

The firm of Sloper and Dodge, publishers and printers, was in great distress. These two enterprising individuals had worked up an enormous business in time-payment books, which they sold all over Australia by means of canvassers. They had put all the money they had into the business; and now, just when everything was in thorough […]

No tram ever goes to Randwick races without him; he is always fat, hairy, and assertive; he is generally one of a party, and takes the centre of the stage all the time — collects and hands over the fares, adjusts the change, chaffs the conductor, crushes the thin, apologetic stranger next him into a […]

Chapter I. — Wanted, a Pony Algernon de Montgomery Smythers was a merchant, wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. Other merchants might dress more lavishly, and wear larger watch chains; but the bank balance is the true test of mercantile superiority, and in a trial of bank balances Algernon de Montgomery Smythers represented Tyson at […]

Dog-fighting as a sport is not much in vogue now-a-days. To begin with it is illegal. Not that THAT matters much, for Sunday drinking is also illegal. But dog-fighting is one of the cruel sports which the community has decided to put down with all the force of public opinion. Nevertheless, a certain amount of […]

We were training two horses for the Buckatowndown races — an old grey warrior called Tricolor — better known to the station boys as The Trickler — and a mare for the hack race. Station horses don’t get trained quite like Carbine; some days we had no time to give them gallops at all, so […]

The sheep-dog and the cattle-dog are the workmen of the animal kingdom; sporting and fighting dogs are the professionals and artists. A house-dog or a working-dog will only work for his master; a professional or artistic dog will work for anybody, so long as he is treated like an artist. A man going away for […]

Of all the ways in which men get a living there is none so hard and so precarious as that of steeplechase-riding in Australia. It is bad enough in England, where steeplechases only take place in winter, when the ground is soft, where the horses are properly schooled before being raced, and where most of […]

The dog is a member of society who likes to have his day’s work, and who does it more conscientiously than most human beings. A dog always looks as if he ought to have a pipe in his mouth and a black bag for his lunch, and then he would go quite happily to office […]