G'day GUEST of 24 May 19 - 08.36 AM,

As far as I know, most reciters ... or singers of musical settings ... of this poem start from John Meredith's collected words from the notebook of the late R J Blumer of Clydd (a 'suburb' of Lithgow - a coal-mining town just over the Great Dividing Range, west of Sydney).

Quite a number of singers set tunes to it ... and variations in words would often represent 'fitting' the words to a particular singer's tune or just their preference. It may be that the words you remember come from such a musical setting ... or just an individual reciter's memory of the poem ... or they may have come down entirely free of the "folk revival" (~1953 ... onwards)!

I always used the Blumer words, which I got direct from John Meredith ... and I came to prefer the second collected set ... those left behind on a cassette recording of the the late Ernie Sibley, of Mudgee (a town further west and north of Lithgow) as they show a better knowledge of Moree ... and have a few more robust stanzas about the "sheila" - after she is bitten by the red-back spider!

Regard(les)s,

Bob