BILLY OF TEA
Tune: Bonnie Dundee
Words: Australian Traditional but I'll try to find out details of by whom/ from whom/when/where it was collected.

You can talk of your whisky and talk of your beer,
There's something much nicer that's waiting me here,
It sits on the fire beneath the gum tree,
There's nothing much nicer than a billy of tea.

So fill up your tumbler as high as you can
And don't you dare tell me it's not the best plan,
You can let all your beer and your spirits go free
There's nothing much nicer than a billy of tea.

I rise in the morning as soon as it's light
And go to the nosebag to see it's alright
That the ants on the sugar no mortgage have got
And straight away sling my old black billy pot

And while it is boiling the horses I seek
And follow them down as far as the creek
I take off their hobbles and let them run free
Then haste to tuck into my billy of tea

And at night when I camp if the day has been warm
I give to my horses their tucker of corn
From the two in the pole to the one in the lead
A billy for each holds a comfortable feed

Then the fire I make and the water I get
And corned beef and damper in order I set
But I don't touch the grub though so hungry I be,
I wait till it's ready, my billy of tea

Cheers, Rowan