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AUSTRALIA'S ON THE WALLABY Our fathers came to search for gold The mine has proved a duffer From bankers, boss and syndicate We always had to suffer They fought for freedom for themdelves Themselves and mates to toil But Australia's sons are weary And the billy's on the boil cho: Australia's on the wallaby Just listen to the coo-ee For the kangaroo he rolls his swag And the emu shoulders bluey The boomerangs are whizzinq round The dingo scratches gravel The possum bear and bandicoot Are all upon the travel The cuckoo calls the bats and now The pigeon and the shag The mallee-hen and platypus Are rollinq up their swaq For the curlew sings a sad farewell Beside the long lagoon And the brolga does his last-way waltz To the lyrebird'd mocking tune There's tiger-snakes and damper, boys And what's that on the coals? There's drouqhts and floods and ragged duds There's dried-up waterholes There's shadeless trees and sun-scorched plains All asking us to toil But Australia's sons are weary And the billy's on the boil note: From Old Bush Recitations, collected by "Bill Bowyang" and published in 1933. To go "on the wallaby" or "on the wallaby track" or to "hump the drum" is to travel outback as a swaggie or sundowner, ie a tramp or itinerant worker. John Meredith notes that the tune "is a variant of the tune used in northern Queensland for Lawson's 'Freedom's On the Wallaby' of which this is clearly a parody. @Australian @work @hardtimes @parody filename[ WALLABB2 TUNE FILE: WALLABB2 CLICK TO PLAY IP |
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