‘You come and see me, boys,’ he said;‘You’ll find a welcome and a bedAnd whisky any time you call;Although our township hasn’t gotThe name of quite a lively spot —You see, I live in Booligal. ‘And people have an awful downUpon the district and the town —Which worse than hell itself they call;In fact, the […]

By the far Samoan shore,Where the league-long rollers pourAll the wash of the Pacific on the coral-guarded bay,Riding lightly at their ease,In the calm of tropic seas,The three great nations’ warships at their anchors proudly lay. Riding lightly, head to wind,With the coral reefs behind,Three Germans and three Yankee ships were mirrored in the blue;And […]

The London lights are far abeamBehind a bank of cloud,Along the shore the gaslights gleam,The gale is piping loud;And down the Channel, groping blind,We drive her through the hazeTowards the land we left behind —The good old land of ‘never mind’,And old Australian ways. The narrow ways of English folkAre not for such as we;They […]

For the honour of Australia, our mother,Side by side with our kin from over sea,We have fought and we have tested one another,And enrolled among the brotherhood are we. There was never post of danger but we sought itIn the fighting, through the fire, and through the flood.There was never prize so costly but we […]

As the nations sat together, grimly waiting —The fierce old nations battle-scarred —Grown grey in their lusting and their hating,Ever armed and ever ready keeping guard,Through the tumult of their warlike preparationAnd the half-stilled clamour of the drumsCame a voice crying, ‘Lo! a new-made nation,To her place in the sisterhood she comes!’ And she came […]

I left the course, and by my sideThere walked a ruined tout —A hungry creature evil-eyed,Who poured this story out. ‘You see,’ he said, ‘there came a swellTo Kensington to-day,And if I picked the winners well,A crown at least he’d pay. ‘I picked three winners straight, I did,I filled his purse with pelf,And then he […]

The news came down on the Castlereagh, and went to the world at large,That twenty thousand travelling sheep, with Saltbush Bill in charge,Were drifting down from a dried-out run to ravage the Castlereagh;And the squatters swore when they heard the news,and wished they were well away:For the name and the fame of Saltbush Bill were […]

The mountain road goes up and down,From Gundagai to Tumut Town. And branching off there runs a track,Across the foothills grim and black, Across the plains and ranges greyTo Sydney city far away. . . . . . It came by chance one day that IFrom Tumut rode to Gundagai. And reached about the evening […]

It’s grand to be a squatterAnd sit upon a post,And watch your little ewes and lambsA-giving up the ghost. It’s grand to be a ‘cockie’With wife and kids to keep,And find an all-wise ProvidenceHas mustered all your sheep. It’s grand to be a Western man,With shovel in your hand,To dig your little homestead outFrom underneath […]

Oh! the circus swooped downOn the Narrabri town,For the Narrabri populace moneyed are;And the showman he smiledAt the folk he beguiledTo come all the distance from Gunnedah. But a juvenile smart,Who objected to ‘part’,Went in ‘on the nod’, and to do it heCrawled in through a crackIn the tent at the back,For the boy had […]

‘You led the trump,’ the old man saidWith fury in his eye,‘And yet you hope my girl to wed!Young man! your hopes of love are fled,‘Twere better she should die! ‘My sweet young daughter sitting there,So innocent and plump!You don’t suppose that she would careTo wed an outlawed man who’d dareTo lead the thirteenth trump! […]

All of us play our very best game —Any other time.Golf or billiards, it’s all the same —Any other time.Lose a match and you always say,‘Just my luck! I was ‘off’ to-day!I could have beaten him quite half-way —Any other time!’ After a fiver you ought to go —Any other time.Every man that you ask […]

Wargeilah town is very small,There’s no cathedral nor a club,In fact the township, all in all,Is just one unpretentious pub;And there, from all the stations round,The local sportsmen can be found. The sportsmen of Wargeilah sideAre very few but very fit:There’s scarcely any sport been triedBut what they held their own at itIn fact, to […]

‘I’ll introdooce a friend!’ he said,And if you’ve got a vacant penYou’d better take him in the shedAnd start him shearing straight ahead,He’s one of these here quiet men. ‘He never strikes — that ain’t his game;No matter what the others tryHE goes on shearing just the same.I never rightly knew his name —We always […]

Do they know? At the turn to the straightWhere the favourites fail,And every atom of weightIs telling its tale;As some grim old stayer hard-pressedRuns true to his breed,And with head just in front of the restFights on in the lead;When the jockeys are out with the whips,With a furlong to go;And the backers grow white […]

When you’re lying in your hammock, sleeping soft and sleeping sound,Without a care or trouble on your mind,And there’s nothing to disturb you but the engines going round,And you’re dreaming of the girl you left behind;In the middle of your joys you’ll be wakened by a noise,And a clatter on the deck above your crown,And […]

‘Twas Driver Smith of Battery A was anxious to see a fight;He thought of the Transvaal all the day, he thought of it all the night —‘Well, if the battery’s left behind, I’ll go to the war,’ says he,‘I’ll go a-driving an ambulance in the ranks of the A.M.C. ‘I’m fairly sick of these here […]

The long day passes with its load of sorrow:In slumber deepI lay me down to rest until to-morrow —Thank God for sleep. Thank God for all respite from weary toiling,From cares that creepAcross our lives like evil shadows, spoilingGod’s kindly sleep. We plough and sow, and, as the hours grow later,We strive to reap,And build […]

What! You don’t like him; well, maybe — we all have our fancies, of course:Brumby to look at you reckon? Well, no: he’s a thoroughbred horse;Sired by a son of old Panic — look at his ears and his head —Lop-eared and Roman-nosed, ain’t he? — well, that’s how the Panics are bred.Gluttonous, ugly and […]

The sheep were shorn and the wool went downAt the time of our local racing:And I’d earned a spell — I was burnt and brown —So I rolled my swag for a trip to townAnd a look at the steeplechasing. ‘Twas rough and ready — an uncleared courseAs rough as the blacks had found it;With […]