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THE OLD BUSH SONGS
Second Impression
completing the Tenth Thousand
THE OLD BUSH SONGS
Composed and sung in the Bushranging,
Digging, and Overlanding Days
EDITED BY
A. B. PATERSON
AUTHOR OF “THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER,” AND
“RIO GRANDE’S LAST RACE”
SYDNEY
ANGUS AND ROBERTSON
89 CASTLEREAGH STREET
1906
Websdale, Shoosmith and Co., Printers, Sydney
PREFACE
The object of the present publication is to gather together
all the old bush songs that are worth remembering. Apart
from other considerations, there are many Australians who
will be reminded by these songs of the life of the shearing
sheds, the roar of the diggings townships, and the campfires
of the overlanders. The diggings are all deep sinking now,
the shearing is done by contract, and the cattle are sent by
rail to market, while newspapers travel all over Australia;
so there will be no more bush ballads composed and
sung, as these were composed and sung, as records of the
early days of the nation. In their very roughness, in their
absolute lack of any mention of home ties or of the domestic
affections, they proclaim their genuineness. They were collected
from all parts of Australia, and have been patched
together by the compiler to the best of his ability, with
the idea of presenting the song as nearly as possible as it was
sung, rather than attempting to soften any roughness or
irregularity of metre. Attempts to ascertain the names of
the authors have produced contradictory statements, and no
doubt some of the songs were begun by one man and
finished or improved by another, or several others. Some
few fairly recent ballads have been included, but for the most
part no attempt has been made to include any of the more
ambitious literary productions of modern writers. This collection
is intended to consist of the old bush songs as they
were sung in the early days, and as such it is placed before
the reader.
Most cordial thanks are due to those who have sent contributions,
and it is hoped that others who can remember any
old songs not included here will forward them for inclusion
in a future edition.
CONTENTS
TWO ABORIGINAL SONGS
PADDY MALONE IN AUSTRALIA
THE OLD BULLOCK DRAY
PADDY’S LETTER, 1857
THE OLD BARK HUT
THE OLD SURVEY
DWELL NOT WITH ME
THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF AUSTRALIA
ON THE ROAD TO GUNDAGAI
FLASH JACK FROM GUNDAGAI
ANOTHER FALL OF RAIN
BOLD JACK DONAHOO
THE WILD COLONIAL BOY
JOHN GILBERT (BUSHRANGER)
IMMIGRATION
THE SQUATTER’S MAN
THE STRINGY BARK COCKATOO
THE EUMERELLA SHORE
JIMMY SAGO JACKAROO
THE PLAINS OF RIVERINE
THE SHEEP-WASHERS’ LAMENT
THE BROKEN-DOWN SQUATTER
THE FREE SELECTOR
A NATIONAL SONG FOR AUSTRALIA FELIX
SUNNY NEW SOUTH WALES
BRINGING HOME THE COWS
THE DYING STOCKMAN
MY MATE BILL
SAM HOLT
THE BUSHMAN
HAWKING
COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
THE STOCKMEN OF AUSTRALIA
IT’S ONLY A WAY HE’S GOT
THE LOAFER’S CLUB
THE OLD KEG OF RUM
THE MURRUMBIDGEE SHEARER
THE SWAGMAN
THE STOCKMAN
THE MARANOA DROVERS
RIVER BEND
SONG OF THE SQUATTER
WALLABI JOE
THE SQUATTER OF THE OLDEN TIME
THE STOCKMAN’S LAST BED
MUSTERING SONG
THE AUSTRALIAN STOCKMAN
THE SHEPHERD
THE OVERLANDER
A THOUSAND MILES AWAY
THE FREEHOLD ON THE PLAIN
THE WALLABY BRIGADE
MY RELIGION
BOURKE’S DREAM
BILLY BARLOW IN AUSTRALIA
INTRODUCTION
“All human beings not utterly savage long for some information
about past times, and are delighted by narratives which
present pictures to the eye of the mind. But it is only in
very enlightened communities that books are readily accessible.
Metrical composition, therefore, which, in a highly
civilised nation, is a mere luxury, is in nations imperfectly
civilised almost a necessity of life, and is valued less on
account of the pleasure which it gives to the ear than on
account of the help which it gives to the memory. A man who
can invent or embellish an interesting story and put it into a
form which others may easily retain in their recollection
will always be highly esteemed by a people eager for amusement
and information, but destitute of libraries. Such is the
origin of ballad poetry, a species of composition which
scarcely ever fails to spring up and flourish in every society
at a certain point in the progress towards refinement.”—
Macaulay.
Australia’s history is so short, and her progress has been so
wonderfully rapid, that, seeing things as they are to-day, it is
hard to believe that among us still are men who can remember
the days when convicts in irons tramped the streets of
Sydney, and it was unsafe to go to and from Sydney and Parramatta
without an armed escort; who were partakers of the
roaring days of the diggings when miners lit their pipes with
five-pound notes and shod their horses with gold; who have
exchanged shots with Gilbert and Morgan, and have watched
the lumbering police of the old days scouring the country to
earn the thousand pounds reward on the head of Ben Hall.
So far as materials for ballads go, the first sixty or seventy
years of our history are equal to about three hundred years
of the life of an old and settled nation. The population of
the country comprised a most curious medley. Among the
early settlers were some of the most refined and educated,
and some of the most ignorant, people on the face of the earth.
Among the assisted immigrants and currency lads of the
earlier days education was not a strong point; and such
newspapers as there were could not be obtained by one-half
of the population, and could not be read by a very large
percentage of the other half. It is no wonder, then, that the
making of ballads flourished in Australia just as it did in
England, Scotland, and Ireland in the days before printing
was in common use. And it was not only in the abundance
of matter that the circumstances of the infant Colony were
favourable to ballad-making. The curious upheavals of
Australian life had set the Oxford graduate carrying his swag
and cadging for food at the prosperous homestead of one
who could scarcely write his name; the digger, peeping out
of his hole—like a rabbit out of his burrow—at the license
hunters, had, perhaps, in another clime charmed cultivated
audiences by his singing and improvisation; the bush was
full of ne’er-do-wells—singers and professional entertainers
and so on—who had “come to grief” and had to take to hard
work to earn a crust to carry them on until they could
“strike a new patch.” No wonder that, with all this talent
to hand, songs and ballads of a rough sort were plentiful
enough.
Most of these songs, even in the few years that they have
been extant, have developed three or four different readings,
and not only have the ballads been altered, but many of them
have been forgotten altogether. Only one very imperfect
song has come to hand dealing directly with the convict days,
but there must have been many ballads composed and sung
by the prisoners—ballads in which the horrors of Port
Arthur in Tasmania, the grim, grey prisons of Norfolk
Island, the curse of official tyranny, and the humours of the
rum traffic had their share. Possibly some lost singer of
convictdom poured out his regrets in words straight from the
soul, and produced a song worthy to rank as a classic: but
all the songs of that day have been mercifully allowed to
drift into oblivion; and their singers, with their grey clothes
and their fetters, have gone clanking down to the limbo of
forgotten things.
The collection begins with two aboriginal songs. These
songs were supplied by Mr. S. M. Mowle, a very old
colonist, with much experience of the blacks fifty years ago.
He writes—“I could never find out what the words meant,
and I don’t think the blacks themselves knew.” Other
authorities, however, say that the blacks’ songs were very
elaborate, and that they composed corroborees which reached
a high dramatic level. The question is of interest, and might
be worth investigation.
It is interesting to see how the progress of settlement is
reflected in the various songs. Beginning with the crude
early days, when there was land and to spare, and when
labour was in demand and Australia was terra incognita to
all, we find in “Paddy Malone” a fitting chronicle in rhyme.
In this ballad a raw, Irish immigrant tells of his adventures
in the Australian bush. He was put to shepherding and
bullock-driving, which in itself proves that labourers were at
a premium, and that instead of a man having to hunt for a
job the job had to hunt for the man. He lost his sheep, and
the bullocks got away from him. It will be noticed that
there is no mention of fences or roads in this ballad, as in the
“Paddy Malone” days fences and roads were not very much
met with. Compare also “The Beautiful Land of Australia.”
In this the settler reaches Sydney, and “Upon the map I
chose my land,” which shows that there was land enough and
to spare, and that the system of grants to free immigrants
was in full swing. It is noticeable that in all the ballads of
early days there is a sort of happy-go-lucky spirit which
reflects the easy-come, easy-go style of the times.
Next in order come the ballads of the days when the
squatters had established themselves, and the poorer classes
found it harder to live. “The Squatter’s Man” is a balled
of these harder times. Compare it with “Paddy Malone.”
There is no talk of sending a new-chum out with sheep and
bullocks now. The first rush of settlement is over, and the
haughty squatter contemptuously offers ten shillings a week
as wages to a man for a variety of drudgery that is set out
with much spirit in the song.
Next come the free-selection days, when the runs of these
squatters were thrown open to purchase on certain easy conditions,
and at once the ballads change their tone, and there
is quite a pæan of victory in “The Free Selector—a Song of
1861.” The reader will note that “The Land Bill has passed
and the good time has come,” and further on the singer says
The squatters also had a word to say, and “The Broken-down
Squatter” puts their side of the case in a sort of
ad misericordiam appeal; while “The Eumerella Shore” is a
smart hit at the cattle-stealers who availed themselves of the
chances afforded by the new state of things in the country.
Later still comes the time when the selectors became
employers of labour, and “The Stringy-bark Cockatoo,”
though rough in style and versification, is a splendid hit at
the new squireens. A “cockatoo,” it should be explained,
is a small settler, and the stringy-bark tree is an unfailing
sign of poor land; and the minstrel was much worse treated
when working for “The Stringy-bark Cockatoo” than when
he was a “Squatter’s man.”
So much for the historical element; now as to the songs
themselves. As metrical compositions they cannot be
expected to rank high. In all her history England has produced
only a few good ballads, and ballads do not get justice
from cold print. An old Scotchman, to whom Sir Walter
Scott read some of his collected ballads, expressed the opinion
that the ballads were spoilt by printing. And these bush
songs, to be heard at their best, should be heard to an
accompaniment of clashing shears when the voice of a shearer
rises through the din caused by the rush and bustle
of a shearing shed, the scrambling of the sheep in their pens,
and the hurry of the pickers-up; or when, on the roads, the
cattle are restless on their camp at night and the man
on watch, riding round them, strikes up “Bold Jack
Donahoo” to steady their nerves a little. Drovers know
that they must not sneak quietly about restless cattle—it is
better to sing to them and let them know that someone is
stirring and watching; and many a mob of wild, pike-horned
Queensland cattle, half inclined to stampede, has listened
contentedly to the “Wild Colonial Boy” droned out in true
bush fashion till the daylight began to break and the mob
was safe for another day. Heard under such circumstances
as these the songs have quite a character of their own. A
great deal depends, too, on the way in which they are sung.
The true bushman never hurries his songs. They are
designed expressly to pass the time on long journeys or
slow, wearisome rides after sheep or tired cattle; so the songs
are sung conscientiously through—chorus and all—and the
last three words of the song are always spoken, never sung.
There is, too, a strong Irish influence in the greater number
of the songs; quite a large proportion are sung to the
tune of the “Wearing of the Green,” and the admixture of
Irish wit and Irish pathos in their composition can only be
brought out by a good singer.
One excuse, if excuse be needed, for the publication of this
collection is the fact that the songs it contains are fast being
forgotten. Thirty or forty years ago every station and every
shearing shed had its singer, who knew some of the bush
songs. Nowadays they are never sung, and even in districts
where they took their rise they have pretty well died out.
Only a few years ago, every shearing shed had at least one
minstrel who could drone out the refrain of a shearing song—
But the Goorianawa sheep are not celebrated in song nowadays,
and advertisement has failed to produce a copy of the
song. Down in the rough country near the Upper Murrumbidgee,
where the bushranger Gilbert was betrayed by
a relative and was shot by the police, there was a song about
“Dunn, Gilbert, and Ben Hall” It commenced—
Another line ran—
Thirty years ago every one in the district had heard this
song, and all the sympathisers with the bushrangers (which
meant the bulk of the wild and scattered population) used to
sing it on occasion; but to-day the most persistent inquiry
has failed to reveal one man who can remember more than a
few fragments of it; and yet it is only forty years since Ben
Hall was shot. It is in the hope of rescuing these rough
bush ballads from oblivion that the present collection is
placed before the public.
A. B. PATERSON.
TWO ABORIGINAL SONGS
I
II
Of the above songs Mr. Mowle writes—“I could never
find out what the words meant, and I don’t think the blacks
themselves knew.”
PADDY MALONE IN AUSTRALIA
THE OLD BULLOCK DRAY
This song may require a few notes for the benefit of
non-Australian readers. A paddy-melon is a small and speedy
marsupial, a sort of poor relation of the great kangaroo family.
“Calling at the depôt to get an offsider.”—Female immigrants
were housed at the depôt on arrival, and many found
husbands within a few hours of their landing. The minstrel,
therefore, proposes to call at the depôt to get himself a wife
from among the immigrants. An offsider is a bullock-drivers
assistant—one who walks on the off-side of the team and
flogs the bullocks on that side when occasion arises. The
word afterwards came to mean an assistant of any kind.
“Jack Robertson.”—Sir John Robertson, as he afterwards
became, was a well-known politician, who believed in Australians
doing their best to populate their own country.
“Budgery you”—good fellow you.
PADDY’S LETTER, 1857
The above to an old tune called “Barney O’Keefe,” 1848.
THE OLD BARK HUT
THE OLD SURVEY
DWELL NOT WITH ME
THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF AUSTRALIA
ON THE ROAD TO GUNDAGAI
“Humped our blues serenely.”—To hump bluey is to carry
one’s swag, and the name bluey comes from the blue blankets.
To “Shoulder Matilda” is the same thing as to “hump
bluey.”
FLASH JACK FROM GUNDAGAI
“I’ve pinked ’em with the Wolseleys, and I’ve rushed with
B-bows, too.” — Wolseleys and B-bows are respectively
machines and hand-shears, and “pinking” means that he had
shorn the sheep so closely that the pink skin showed through.
“I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week,” i.e., he was
the ringer or fastest shearer of the shed, and he dissipated
the earnings in a single week’s drunkenness.
“Whalin’ up the Lachlan.” — In the old days there was an
army of “sundowners” or professional loafers who walked
from station to station, ostensibly to look for work, but
without any idea of accepting it. These nomads often followed
up and down certain rivers, and would camp for days and
fish for cod in the bends of the river. Hence whaling up the
Lachlan.
ANOTHER FALL OF RAIN
(Air: “Little Low Log Cabin in the Lane.”)
“Another Fall of Rain” is a song that needs a little
explanation. The strain of shearing is very severe on the
wrists, and the ringer or fastest shearer is very apt to go in
the wrists, especially at the beginning of a season. Hence
the desire of the shearers for a fall of rain after a long stretch
of hot weather.
BOLD JACK DONAHOO
THE WILD COLONIAL BOY
It will be noticed that the same chorus is sung to both
“The Wild Colonial Boy” and “Bold Jack Donahoo.”
Several versions of both songs were sent in, but the same
chorus was always made to do duty for both songs.
JOHN GILBERT (BUSHRANGER)
[He and his gang stuck up the township of Canowindra for
two days in 1859.]
(Air: “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.”)
IMMIGRATION
[Mr. Jordan was sent to England by the Queensland
Government in 1858, 1859, and 1860 to lecture on the advantages
of immigration, and told the most extraordinary tales
about the place.]
(Air: “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.”)
THE SQUATTER’S MAN
“Do you know how to snob?”—A snob in English slang is
a bootmaker, so the squatter wanted his man to do a bit of
boot-repairing.
“I’ll give ten, ten, sugar and tea.”—The “ten, ten” refers
to the amount—ten pounds weight—of flour and meat that
made up the weekly ration on the stations.
THE STRINGY-BARK COCKATOO
[For note on this song, see Introduction.]
THE EUMERELLA SHORE
JIMMY SAGO, JACKAROO
(Air: “Wearing of the Green.”)
A “Jackaroo” is a young man who comes to a station to
get experience. He occupies a position much like that of an
apprentice on a ship, and has to work with the men though
supposed to be above them in social status. Hence these
sneers at the Jackaroo.
THE PLAINS OF RIVERINE
“This year will pay the pound.”—A pound a hundred is
the price for shearing sheep, and several bitterly fought-out
strikes have taken place about it.
“We’ll take no topknots off this year nor trim them to the
toes.”—Owing to the amiability of the squatters and the
excellence of the season, the shearers intend to leave some of
the wool on the sheep, i.e., the topknots on the head and
wool down on the legs.
“To steer sixteen”—sixteen horses in the team.
THE SHEEP-WASHERS’ LAMENT
(Air: “The Bonnie Irish Boy.”)
THE BROKEN-DOWN SQUATTER
(Air: “It’s a fine hunting day.”)
THE FREE SELECTOR
(A Song of 1861.)
A NATIONAL SONG FOR AUSTRALIA FELIX
SUNNY NEW SOUTH WALES
BRINGING HOME THE COWS
THE DYING STOCKMAN
(Air: “The Old Stable Jacket.”)
MY MATE BILL
SAM HOLT
(Air: “Ben Bolt.”)
THE BUSHMAN
(Air: “Wearing of the Green.”)
HAWKING
(Air: “Bow, Wow, Wow.”)
COLONIAL EXPERIENCE
[By A New Chum]
(Air: “So Early in the Morning.”)
THE STOCKMEN OF AUSTRALIA
IT’S ONLY A WAY HE’S GOT
(As sung by the camp fire.)
THE LOAFERS’ CLUB
THE OLD KEG OF RUM
THE MURRUMBIDGEE SHEARER
THE SWAGMAN
“A Swagman on the Wallaby.”—A nomad following
track of the wallaby, i.e., loafing aimlessly.
THE STOCKMAN
(Air: “A wet sheet and a flowing sea.”)
THE MARANOA DROVERS
(Air: “Little Sally Waters.”)
RIVER BEND
(Air: “Belle Mahone.”)
“River Bend.”—This song certainly cannot boast of
antiquity, as it is a parody on a recent sentimental song, but
so many correspondents sent it in that it was decided to include
it. Perhaps it is to its obvious sincerity of sentiment
that it owes its popularity.
SONG OF THE SQUATTER
[The subjoined is one of the “Songs of the Squatters,”
written by the Hon. Robert Lowe (afterwards Viscount
Sherbrooke), while resident in New South Wales.]