I recently came across this song from the 1850s with and Australian reference in the first verse


The Hungry Army

When I was young and in my prime,
I thought I'd go and join the line,
And as a soldier cut a shine,
In a lot called the hungry army;
Said the sergeant you are just the chap,
And placed a knapsack on my back,
Then sent me off to Ballarat,
To fight in the hungry army.

Sound the bugle, blow the horn,
Fight for glory, night and morn:
Hungry soldiers, ragged and torn,
Just returned from the army.

March, boys, march, the way is on before us,
Shout, boys, shout, and join me in the chorus,
March, boys, march, the foe is still advancing,
Cheer, boys, cheer, for the new and happy land.

I went to drill on one fine day,
The wind was rather strong that way,
In fact it blew the lot away,
This glorious hungry army;
I've got a medal as you see,
The workhouse presented it to me,
For hanging fast to a rotten tree,
When the wind took the hungry army.

They cut my hair with a knife and fork,
And curled it with a cabbage-stalk,
And fed me on some cabbage broth,
To fight in the hungry army;
They served it out in a large tin can,
A tea-spoonful to every man,
I got so fat I couldn't stand
To fight in the hungry army.

They sent me out to drill recruits,
But they kick'd me with their hob-nail'd boots,
Oh take, oh, take away these brutes,
Of this glorious hungry army;
Now, kind friends, I must be off,
I think I smell the cabbage broth;
Here comes old general Howl and Scoff,
The head of the hungry army.

From James Hepburn A Book of Scattered Leaves 2001, pp. 407-408.

cheers