G'day Jon Bartlett,

Those three lines you quote are also found in the version (from "MC" .. ) already in the DT ... and, like much of what's there, barely reconisable as the song I learned from Colin Dryden's singing - in Sydney / early 1970s.

The link I posted to the Australian UnionSong site has virtually the same words I posted ... taken down by my late friend Chris Kempster ... also compiler and notator of the definitive collections of songs from the poetry of Henry Lawson ... and meticulous in such details.

I can only presume that there is a decidedly 'feral' version of Colin's Factory Lad that represents a lot of aural/folklore transmission: ... folk clubs / song sessions / scrawled texts ... and probably American, in the main, and so, influenced by a completely different vocabulary ... and industrial / work / housing ethos!

Certainly, the "MC version" in the DT would be nearly unrecognisable to singers around here ... many singing from the lyric remembered by those of us who heard it around Sydney folk venues in the early '70s - sung by Colin Dryden!

Regards,

BobB