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DaveJohnson Mudcat Australia-New Zealand Songbook (1356* d) RE: Rise Up Mudcat Songbook - Australia 11 Dec 20


Here's one that I thought deserved a tune and chorus. There are very few bullocky songs and yet these men were the mainstay of early colonial transport.

Bill the Bullocky
In an article called Gundagai's Dog by JG Castleton written in 1938 he says these words were sighted on a matchbox holder and dated 1859.
In “Songs of Australia” it is set to an Irish rebel tune and given a rollicking chorus to rollick by myself.

As I came down through Conroy's Gap, I heard a maiden cry,
"There goes old Bill the Bullocky, he's bound for Gundagai!'

Chorus
With a heave on the yoke and a heave on the chains
And the crack of the whip again and again.

'A better bullock-driver never cracked more honest crust;
A kinder-hearted driver never dragged a whip through dust.'

With Spark and Charlie in the lead and on the pole old Ball,
Who bent his back, nor cared a damn if the others pulled at all.

His team got bogged at Five-Mile Creek; Bill lashed and cried and swore,
'If Nobby don't haul us out of this I'll speak to him no more!'

So Nobby strained, and broke the yoke, and poked out Baldy's eye,
And the dog sat on the tucker-box five miles from Gundagai.

Come all you bullock-drivers, and listen to my rhyme,
And if ever you go a-carrying, don't bind yourselves to time.

For I'm on the Sydney Road, my boys, my fortune for to try,
And I'm loaded for a storekeeper, in the town of Gundagai.

Song file with abc and pdf links


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