One day old Trooper Campbell Rode out to Blackman’s Run, His cap-peak and his sabre Were glancing in the sun. ‘Twas New Year’s Eve, and slowly Across the ridges low The sad Old Year was drifting To where the old years go. The trooper’s mind was reading The love-page of his life — His love […]

The colours of the setting sun Withdrew across the Western land — He raised the sliprails, one by one, And shot them home with trembling hand; Her brown hands clung — her face grew pale — Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim! — One quick, fierce kiss across the rail, And, ‘Good-bye, Mary!’ ‘Good-bye, […]

Now up and down the siding brown The great black crows are flyin’, And down below the spur, I know, Another ‘milker’s’ dyin’; The crops have withered from the ground, The tank’s clay bed is glarin’, But from my heart no tear nor sound, For I have gone past carin’ — Past worryin’ or carin’, […]

Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn, And one of them called for the drinks with a grin; They’d only returned from a trip to the North, And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth. He absently poured out a glass of Three Star. And set down that drink with the rest […]

When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West, On a spur among the mountains stood ‘The Bullock-drivers’ Rest’; It was built of bark and saplings, and was rather rough inside, But ’twas good enough for bushmen in the careless days that died — Just a quiet little shanty kept by ‘Something-in-Disguise’, As […]

White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier As we glide to the grand old sea — But the song of my heart is for none to hear If one of them waves for me. A roving, roaming life is mine, Ever by field or flood — For not far back in my father’s line […]

Tall and freckled and sandy, Face of a country lout; This was the picture of Andy, Middleton’s Rouseabout. Type of a coming nation, In the land of cattle and sheep, Worked on Middleton’s station, ‘Pound a week and his keep.’ On Middleton’s wide dominions Plied the stockwhip and shears; Hadn’t any opinions, Hadn’t any ‘idears’. […]

It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down, When I came, in search of ‘copy’, to a Darling-River town; ‘Come-and-have-a-drink’ we’ll call it — ’tis a fitting name, I think — And ’twas raining, for a wonder, up at Come-and-have-a-drink. ‘Neath the public-house verandah I was resting on a bunk When a […]

By homestead, hut, and shearing-shed, By railroad, coach, and track– By lonely graves of our brave dead, Up-Country and Out-Back: To where ‘neath glorious clustered stars The dreamy plains expand– My home lies wide a thousand miles In the Never-Never Land. It lies beyond the farming belt, Wide wastes of scrub and plain, A blazing […]

Across the stony ridges, Across the rolling plain, Young Harry Dale, the drover, Comes riding home again. And well his stock-horse bears him, And light of heart is he, And stoutly his old pack-horse Is trotting by his knee. Up Queensland way with cattle He travelled regions vast; And many months have vanished Since home-folk […]

They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise; May Carney looked up in the bushranger’s eyes: ‘Oh! why did you come? — it was mad of you, Jack; You know that the troopers are out on your track.’ A laugh and a shake of his obstinate head — ‘I wanted a dance, […]

Some carry their swags in the Great North-West Where the bravest battle and die, And a few have gone to their last long rest, And a few have said “Good-bye!” The coast grows dim, and it may be long Ere the Gums again I see; So I put my soul in a farewell song To […]

When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star, Hide the picture on the signboard over Doughty’s Horse Bazaar; When the last rose-tint is fading on the distant mulga scrub, Then the Army prays for Watty at the entrance of his pub. Now, I often sit at Watty’s when the night […]

Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began, And there was sorrow round the place, for Denver was a man; Jack Denver’s wife bowed down her head — her daughter’s grief was wild, And big Ben Duggan by the bed stood sobbing like a child. But big Ben Duggan saddled up, and galloped fast […]

Day of ending for beginnings! Ocean hath another innings, Ocean hath another score; And the surges sing his winnings, And the surges shout his winnings, And the surges shriek his winnings, All along the sullen shore. Sing another dirge in wailing, For another vessel sailing With the shadow-ships at sea; Shadow-ships for ever sinking — […]

We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation’s slime; Better a shred of a deep-dyed rag from the storms of the olden time. From grander clouds in our ‘peaceful skies’ than ever were there before I tell you the Star of the South shall rise — in the lurid clouds […]

I am back from up the country — very sorry that I went — Seeking for the Southern poets’ land whereon to pitch my tent; I have lost a lot of idols, which were broken on the track, Burnt a lot of fancy verses, and I’m glad that I am back. Further out may be […]

The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star, Thistles and nettles grow high in the bar — The chimneys are crumbling, the log fires are dead, And green mosses spring from the hearthstone instead. The voices are silent, the bustle and din, For the railroad hath ruined the Cherry-tree Inn. Save the glimmer of […]

His old clay pipe stuck in his mouth, His hat pushed from his brow, His dress best fitted for the South — I think I see him now; And when the city streets are still, And sleep upon me comes, I often dream that me an’ Bill Are humpin’ of our drums. I mind the […]

When I was up the country in the rough and early days, I used to work along ov Jimmy Nowlett’s bullick-drays; Then the reelroad wasn’t heered on, an’ the bush was wild an’ strange, An’ we useter draw the timber from the saw-pits in the range — Load provisions for the stations, an’ we’d travel […]