LAWSON CENTENARY SONG by John Dengate, 1967, tune Gartan Mother's Lament. First published in Singabout 6(2), 1967, page 3 as part of the Bush Music Club's celebration of the Centenary of Henry Lawson's birth.   

video - Gartan Mother's Lament by The Corries

Come now all Australians and tell me did you know - -
Henry Lawson, he was born a hundred years ago,
He was born in a leaky tent, the night was stormy and cold
All on the fields of Grenfell where his father dug for gold.

Henry Lawson spent his boyhood at Eurunderee,
They were years of deprivation, want and poverty.
He humped his swag in the nineties drought, across the plains out-back,
And in the Country west of Bourke he starved upon the track.

Lawson wasn't what you'd call a sober, steady bloke,
Partly deaf and usually drunk, and nearly always broke,
Yet his verses still synthesize what every conscience feels,
Be loyal and steadfast to your mates and stick to your ideals.

He was not the kind of man the sophists love to praise;
Proper education was denied him all his days;
Lawson's lines were bitter and harsh, but touched with humour too,
For Lawson's words came from the heart, and Lawson's heart was true.