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Dyin’ stockmen bitin’ dust
Sweepin’ wheat fields stained with rust
Goannas stuck up holler logs
Grown men cryin’ over dogs
Battlers on the western blocks
Plantin’ stones and growin’ rocks
Brave men crossin’ desert sands
Dancers dancin’ – country bands
Drovers singin’ lonely songs
Outback heroes rightin’ wrongs
Golden holes where treasure gleams
Slowly creepin’ bullock teams
Sun a settin’ in the west
Magpies buildin’ a new nest
In a tall and stately gum
Stockmen gettin’ drunk on rum
Catchin’ buffs and shootin’ pigs
On high springboards fellin’ figs
Wattles swayin’ in the breeze
Faithful prayin’ on their knees
Wives a waitin’ at the rails
Husbands tellin’ doubtful tales
Ringers sittin’ round the fire
Seein’ who’s the biggest liar
Rivers turnin’ into mud
Rivers in a ragin’ flood
Rivers runnin’ red with blood
While a cow chews on its cud
Wild blacks spearin’ settlers
Lonely camps of fettlers
Steam from an artesian gush
Thunderin’ hooves as cattle rush
Horsemen cuttin’ cattle out
Bones a bleachin’ in the drought
Farmers and their crazy schemes
Farmer’s sons with foolish dreams.
These are just some of the themes
Wrote about on reams and reams.
Writ with metre and with rhyme
Mostly of a bygone time.
Some may say it’s had its day
And it’s true it doesn’t pay
But while bush bards have their way
Like the bush it’s here to stay.