GOORIANAWA
(Duke Tritton)

I’ve been many years a shearer and fancied I could shear,
I’ve shorn for Rouse of Guntawang and always missed the spear
I’ve shorn for Nicholas Bayleyand I declare to you
That on his pure merinos I could always struggle through.

Chorus
But oh my, I never saw before
The way we had to knuckle down at Goorianawa

I’ve been shearing down the Bogan as far as Dandaloo
For good old Reid of Tabratong I’ve often cut a few
Haddon Rig and Quambone and even Wingadee
I could close my shears at six o’clock with a quiet century

Chorus

I’ve been shearing on the Goulburn side and down at Douglas Park
Where every day ‘twas ‘Wool Away!’ and Toby did his work
I’ve shorn for General Stewart whose tomb is on The Mount
And the sprees I’ve had with Scrammy Jack are more than I could count

Chorus

I’ve shorn for Bob McMaster down on the Rockedgiel Creek
And I could always dish him up with thirty score a week
I’ve shore at Terramungamine, and on the Talbraga
And I ran McDermott for the cobbler when we shore at Buckingbar

Chorus

I’ve been shearing at Eugowra – I’ll not forget the name
Where Gardiner robbed the escort which from the Lachlan came
I’ve shorn for Bob Fitzgerald down at the Dabee Rocks,
McPhillamy of Charlton and Mister Henry Cox

Chorus

But that was in the good old days – you might have heard them say
How Skillycorn from Bathurst rode to Sydney in a day
Now I'm broken-mouthed and my shearing's at an end
And though they call me Whalebone, I was never known to bend
But spare me flamin’ days, I never saw before
The way we had to knuckle down at Goorianawa

As recorded by Martyn Wyndham-Read on ‘Beneath a Southern Sky’.

Martyn’s note:

I obtained the text from the John Meredith book on Duke called ‘Duke of the Outback’. As Meredith says in his book ‘Duke’s notes on the song almost constitute an outback social history’. My attraction to it is two-fold. I did a tour with Duke Tritton in the early 1960s along with other singers and it was truly an experience to have been in the company of this man. Also, in the second verse, it mentions Haddon Rig. The sheep and cattle station I worked on, Emu Springs in South Australia, was a subsidiary of Haddon Rig.

Youtube clip

--Stewie.