An angel stood beside the bedWhere lay the living and the dead. He gave the mother–her who died–A kiss that Christ the Crucified Had sent to greet the weary soulWhen, worn and faint, it reached its goal. He gave the infant kisses twain,One on the breast, one on the brain. “Go forth into the world,” […]

Now, this is just a simple tale to tell the reader howThey civilised the Maori tribe at Rooti-iti-au. . . . . . The Maoris are a mighty race–the finest ever known;Before the missionaries came they worshipped wood and stone;They went to war and fought like fiends, and when the war was doneThey pacified their […]

(Killed, Steeplechasing at Flemington.) You talk of riders on the flat, of nerve and pluck and pace,Not one in fifty has the nerve to ride a steeplechase.It’s right enough while horses pull and take their fences strong,To rush a flier to the front and bring the field along;But what about the last half-mile, with horses […]

The railway rattled and roared and swungWith jolting carriage and bumping trucks.The sun, like a billiard red ball, hungIn the Western sky: and the tireless tongueOf the wild-eyed man in the corner toldThis terrible tale of the days of old,And the party that ought to have kept the ducks. “Well, it ain’t all joy bein’ […]

It was while we held our races–Hurdles, sprints and steeplechases–Up in Dandaloo,That a crowd of Sydney stealers,Jockeys, pugilists and spielersBrought some horses, real heelers,Came and put us through. Beat our nags and won our money,Made the game by no means funny,Made us rather blue;When the racing was concluded,Of our hard-earned coin denudedDandaloonies sat and broodedThere […]

‘Twas Saltbush Bill, with his travelling sheep, was making his way to town;He crossed them over the Hard Times Run, and he came to the Take ‘Em Down;He counted through at the boundary gate, and camped at the drafting yard:For Stingy Smith, of the Hard Times Run, had hunted him rather hard.He bore no malice […]

The stranger came from Narromine and made his little joke —‘They say we folks in Narromine are narrow-minded folk.But all the smartest men down here are puzzled to defineA kind of new phenomenon that came to Narromine. ‘Last summer up in Narromine ’twas gettin’ rather warm —Two hundred in the water-bag, and lookin’ like a […]

Kanzo Makame, the diver, sturdy and small Japanee,Seeker of pearls and of pearl-shell down in the depths of the sea,Trudged o’er the bed of the ocean, searching industriously. Over the pearl-grounds, the lugger drifted — a little white speck:Joe Nagasaki, the ‘tender’, holding the life-line on deck,Talked through the rope to the diver, knew when […]

‘Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,The grinning shop assistant […]

‘The opening of the railway line! — the Governor and all!With flags and banners down the street, a banquet and a ball.Hark to ’em at the station now! They’re raising cheer on cheer!“The man who brought the railway through — our friend the engineer!” ‘They cheer HIS pluck and enterprise and engineering skill!‘Twas my old […]

The drought is down on field and flock,The river-bed is dry;And we must shift the starving stockBefore the cattle die.We muster up with weary heartsAt breaking of the day,And turn our heads to foreign parts,To take the stock away.And it’s hunt ’em up and dog ’em,And it’s get the whip and flog ’em,For it’s weary […]

Far to the Northward there lies a land,A wonderful land that the winds blow over,And none may fathom nor understandThe charm it holds for the restless rover;A great grey chaos — a land half made,Where endless space is and no life stirreth;And the soul of a man will recoil afraidFrom the sphinx-like visage that Nature […]

Now this was what Macpherson toldWhile waiting in the stand;A reckless rider, over-bold,The only man with hands to holdThe rushing Rio Grande. He said, ‘This day I bid good-byeTo bit and bridle rein,To ditches deep and fences high,For I have dreamed a dream, and IShall never ride again. ‘I dreamt last night I rode this […]

You see, the thing was this way — there was me,That rode Panoppoly, the Splendor mare,And Ikey Chambers on the Iron Dook,And Smith, the half-caste rider, on Regret,And that long bloke from Wagga — him what rodeVeronikew, the Snowy River horse.Well, none of them had chances — not a chanceAmong the lot, unless the rest […]

Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought;But we’re sick of prayers and Providence — we’re going to do without;With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below,We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.Sinking down, deeper down,Oh, we’ll sink it deeper down:As […]

Out in the wastes of the West countrie,Out where the white stars shine,Grim and silent as such men be,Rideth a man with a history —Anthony Considine. For the ways of men they are manifoldAs their differing views in life;For some are sold for the lust of goldAnd some for the lust of strife:But this man […]

‘Tis strange that in a land so strong,So strong and bold in mighty youth,We have no poet’s voice of truthTo sing for us a wondrous song. Our chiefest singer yet has sungIn wild, sweet notes a passing strain,All carelessly and sadly flungTo that dull world he thought so vain. ‘I care for nothing, good nor […]

With eyes that searched in the dark,Peering along the line,Stood the grim Scotchman, Hector Clark,Driver of ‘Forty-nine’,And the veldt-fire flamed on the hills ahead,Like a blood-red beacon sign. There was word of a fight to the north,And a column hard-pressed,So they started the Highlanders forth,Without food, without rest. But the pipers gaily played,Chanting their fierce […]

The sun strikes down with a blinding glare,The skies are blue and the plains are wide,The saltbush plains that are burnt and bareBy Walgett out on the Barwon side —The Barwon river that wanders downIn a leisurely manner by Walgett Town. There came a stranger — a ‘Cockatoo’ —The word means farmer, as all men […]

‘Twas the horse thief, Andy Regan, that was hunted like a dogBy the troopers of the Upper Murray side,They had searched in every gully — they had looked in every log,But never sight or track of him they spied,Till the priest at Kiley’s Crossing heard a knocking very lateAnd a whisper ‘Father Riley — come […]