Here's another Australian version:


GUM TREE CANOE
As recorded by Martyn Wyndham-Read on "Starlit Skies"

I'll sing you a few lines, short little song,
Won't take a moment; I'll not keep you long.
I will sing of the days when our hearts they were young,
And we'd sail on the Murray river, boys, as the days passed along.

CHORUS: We'd row, we'd row through the water so blue.
Like a feather we would float along in our gum-tree canoe.

My hand on the banjo, my toe on the oar,
I'd work all the day and I'd sing as I'd go,
And at night-time alow, with my Julia so fair,
We would sail on the Murray river, boys, and our dreams we would share.

I once left the river, went on the land,
To set myself up as a cocky so grand,
But the life didn't suit me, the way it was then,
So it's back to the Murray river, boys, and my life there again.