This one was sent to 'The Queenslander', a Brisbane newspaper, in October 1894. Offence alert: n- word appears twice. THE BUSHMAN’S FAREWELL TO QUEENSLAND (Anon) Queensland, thou art a land of pests For flies and fleas one never rests Even now mosquitoes round me revel In fact they are the very devil Sandflies and hornets just as bad They nearly drive a fellow mad The scorpion and centipede With stinging ants of every breed Fever and ague with the shakes Tarantulas and poisonous snakes Iguanas, lizards, cockatoos Bushrangers, lags, and jackaroos Bandicoots and swarms of rats Bulldog ants and native cats Stunted timber, thirsty plains Parched-up deserts, scanty rains There's rivers here you can't sail ships on There's nigger women without shifts on There's humpies, huts, and wooden houses And nigger men who won't wear trousers There's Barcoo rot and sandy blight There's dingoes howling all the night There's curlews' wail and croaking frogs There's savage blacks and native dogs There's scentless flowers and stinging tree There's poisonous grass and Darling peas Which drive the cattle raving mad, Makes sheep and horses just as bad And then it never rains in reason. There's drought one year, and flood next season Which sweep the squatters' sheep away And then there is the devil to pay To stay in thee, O land of mutton I would not give a single button But bid thee now a long farewell Thou scorching, sunburnt land of hell! I first came upon this in John Fahey's 'Great Australian Folk Songs' - a tune is given at p91. This is the only musical rendition I can find on the Net: Youtube clip Original poem All the versions of the poem available on the Net omit these 2 lines from the original: There's Bathurst burr and speargrass too Ticks and Belyando spew Belyando is in central Queensland. --Stewie.
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