Roses ruddy and roses white,What are the joys that my heart discloses?Sitting alone in the fading lightMemories come to me here to-nightWith the wonderful scent of the big red roses. Memories come as the daylight fadesDown on the hearth where the firelight dozes;Flicker and flutter the lights and shades,And I see the face of a […]

A sequel to [Mowbray Morris’s] ‘A Voice from the Bush’ I thought, in the days of the droving,Of steps I might hope to retrace,To be done with the bush and the rovingAnd settle once more in my place.With a heart that was well nigh to breaking,In the long, lonely rides on the plain,I thought of […]

Down along the Snakebite River, where the overlanders camp,Where the serpents are in millions, all of the most deadly stamp;Where the station-cook in terror, nearly every time he bakes,Mixes up among the doughboys half-a-dozen poison-snakes:Where the wily free-selector walks in armour-plated pants,And defies the stings of scorpions, and the bites of bull-dog ants:Where the adder […]

There came a whisper down the Bland between the dawn and dark,Above the tossing of the pines, above the river’s flow;It stirred the boughs of giant gums and stalwart ironbark;It drifted where the wild ducks played amid the swamps below;It brought a breath of mountain air from off the hills of pine,A scent of eucalyptus […]

The bell is set a-ringing, and the engine gives a toot,There’s five and thirty shearers here are shearing for the loot,So stir yourselves, you penners-up, and shove the sheep along,The musterers are fetching them a hundred thousand strong,And make your collie dogs speak up — what would the buyers sayIn London if the wool was […]

I served my time, in the days gone by,In the railway’s clash and clang,And I worked my way to the end, and IWas the head of the ‘Flying Gang’.‘Twas a chosen band that was kept at handIn case of an urgent need,Was it south or north we were started forth,And away at our utmost speed.If […]

The daylight is dyingAway in the west,The wild birds are flyingIn silence to rest;In leafage and frondageWhere shadows are deep,They pass to its bondage —The kingdom of sleep.And watched in their sleepingBy stars in the height,They rest in your keeping,Oh, wonderful night. When night doth her gloriesOf starshine unfold,‘Tis then that the storiesOf bush-land are […]

MacFierce’un came to WhiskeyhurstWhen summer days were hot,And bided there wi’ Jock McThirst,A brawny brother Scot.Gude Faith! They made the whisky fly,Like Highland chieftains true,And when they’d drunk the beaker dryThey sang ‘We are nae fou!’ ‘There is nae folk like oor ain folk,Sae gallant and sae true.’They sang the only Scottish jokeWhich is, ‘We […]

‘Aye,’ said the boozer, ‘I tell you it’s true, sir,I once was a punter with plenty of pelf,But gone is my glory, I’ll tell you the storyHow I stiffened my horse and got stiffened myself. ”Twas a mare called the Cracker, I came down to back her,But found she was favourite all of a rush,The […]

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,And men of religion are scanty,On a road never cross’d ‘cept by folk that are lost,One Michael Magee had a shanty. Now this Mike was the dad of a ten year old lad,Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no […]

The shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,After the hard day’s shearing, passing the joke along:The ‘ringer’ that shore a hundred, as they never were shorn before,And the novice who, toiling bravely, had tommy-hawked half a score,The tarboy, the cook, and the slushy, the sweeper that swept the board,The picker-up, and the […]

Oh, the new-chum went to the back block run,But he should have gone there last week.He tramped ten miles with a loaded gun,But of turkey or duck he saw never a one,For he should have been there last week,They said,There were flocks of ’em there last week. He wended his way to a waterfall,And he […]

So you’re back from up the country, Mister Townsman, where you went,And you’re cursing all the business in a bitter discontent;Well, we grieve to disappoint you, and it makes us sad to hearThat it wasn’t cool and shady — and there wasn’t plenty beer,And the loony bullock snorted when you first came into view;Well, you […]

Oh! the shearing is all over,And the wool is coming down,And I mean to get a wife, boys,When I go up to town.Everything that has two legsRepresents itself in view,From the little paddy-melonTo the bucking kangaroo. CHORUS So it’s roll up your blankets,And let’s make a push,I’ll take you up the country,And show you the […]

Och! my name’s Pat Malone, and I’m from Tipperary.Sure, I don’t know it now I’m so bothered, Ohone!And the gals that I danced with, light-hearted and airy,It’s scarcely they’d notice poor Paddy Malone.‘Tis twelve months or more since our ship she cast anchorIn happy Australia, the Emigrant’s home,And from that day to this there’s been […]

I Korindabria, korindabria, bogarona, bogarona. Iwariniangiwaringdo, iwariniang, iwaringdo, iwariniang, iwaringdo,iwariniang, iwaringdo, iwaringime. Iwaringiang, iwaringdoo,ilanenienow, coombagongniengowe, ilanenienow, coombagongniengowe,ilanenienowe combagoniengowe, ilanenienimme. II Buddha-buddharo nianga, boomelana, bulleranga, crobinea,narnmala, yibbilwaadjo nianga, boomelana, a, boomelana,buddha-buddharo, nianga, boomelana, buddharo nianga,boomelana, bulleranga, crobinea, narnmala, yibbilwaadjo,nianga, croilanume, a, croilanga, yibbilwaadjo, nianga,croilanga, yibbilwaadjo, nianga croilanga, coondheranea,tabiabina, boorganmala, yibbilwaadjo, nianga, croilanoome. Of the above songs […]

We buried old Bob where the bloodwoods waveAt the foot of the Eaglehawk;We fashioned a cross on the old man’s grave,For fear that his ghost might walk;We carved his name on a bloodwood tree,With the date of his sad decease,And in place of ‘Died from effects of spree’,We wrote ‘May he rest in peace’. For […]

Born of a thoroughbred English race,Well proportioned and closely knit,Neat of figure and handsome face,Always ready and always fit,Hard and wiry of limb and thew,That was the ne’er-do-well Jim Carew. One of the sons of the good old land —Many a year since his like was known;Never a game but he took command,Never a sport […]

This is the place where they all were bred;Some of the rafters are standing still;Now they are scattered and lost and dead,Every one from the old nest fled,Out of the shadow of Kiley’s Hill. Better it is that they ne’er came back —Changes and chances are quickly rung;Now the old homestead is gone to rack,Green […]

As I pondered very weary o’er a volume long and dreary —For the plot was void of interest — ’twas the Postal Guide, in fact,There I learnt the true location, distance, size, and populationOf each township, town, and village in the radius of the Act. And I learnt that Puckawidgee stands beside the Murrumbidgee,And that […]