My memory of an interview of Rolf Harris (by Andrew Denton) has it that Rolf had heard a calypso song sung by Harry Belafonte. Calypso apparently was a rhythm that was new to him and he was intrigued. Later, the phrase "Tie me kangaroo down, Sport" came into his head and fitted the calypso rhythm perfectly, so he spent some time and effort getting a singable song out of it. [As has already been mentioned, "Sport" is an Oz nominal similar to, and used in similar circumstances to, "Cobber", "Mate", "Digger" and "You old bastard".]

Some years after the song's success had changed his circumstances, Rolf ran into Harry Belafonte and went to thank him for giving him the inspiration for the song; as Rolf recounted it, Harry just ignored him. Andrew Denton's interview of Rolf, originally conducted a couple of years ago, was recently rebroadcast with the intro that its initial broadcast had elicited the highest (positive) audience response of any program that year; for me it was quite a sensitive and moving interview on both occasions.

While most nonIndigenous Australians would not recognise slavery as having been part of the Australian landscape (and would also argue there's never been a war in Australia), many would counter this view with accusations of sophistry. The "blackbirding" of Pacific Islanders ("Kanakas") involved exactly the same operations as the transAtlantic slave trade, with the exception that, "officially" they became "indentured labourers" in Oz. This was mostly centred on Queensland and there are a few "southerners" (ie residents of states south of Queensland) who regard Queensland as a racist community still; they need to remove the splinters from their own eyes first.

Away from the SE corner of Oz, Indigenous Australians (technically, both Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders are recognised as two separate groups under this particular umbrella) were regarded as a form of wildlife by the "whites" who moved into "unoccupied" territory and "settled" it. Sometimes the wildlife was rather useful, for concubinage (and, occasionally, formal marriage) or labour.

Some explorers, traversing areas with small and separated waterholes, are recorded as capturing a few local Aborigines and chaining them up, forcing them to eat salt until they were overpowered by thirst and then releasing them to be followed to the next water source. Other relationships were more respectful but still did not recognise Aboriginal land tenure or rights to fair payment. Most Aborigines on pastoral properties were also on or close to the land occupied by their language group prior to white settlement and its notion of Terra nullius and the Aborigines' obligations to the ceremonies enabled them to "accept" conditions that would have been described anywhere else as "slavery".

"Poor bugger me", posted above by Andrez, celebrates the first successful action by Aborigines to gain right of occupation on land notionally owned by Lord Vestey, even though they had decided to no longer work as part of the station's work force.

"Let me Abos go loose, Bruce", I'd argue, has no real connection with a dying stockman releasing workers. To my mind, it's just a phrase (admittedly on the offensive side, but we didn't think much about such things until later) with a scansion that fits and continues the rhyming pattern, as well as 'pushing' an Oz allusion.

Cheers, Rowan