TO THE NORTH
(Unknown/Tune: 'I'm Afloat')

To the the North! To the North! To the land of the blacks
For hundreds of miles you can keep pushing back
For tucker and water you'll often go short
While humping your drum far away in the North

To the North! To the North! Where the squatters go bung
Greenhide is their mainstay, their crops kurrajong
With scabbies and shin-plasters, they pay all their men
They feed them on pig-weed, sour-thistle, fat-hen

To the North! To the North! The last place God made
The contract unfinished, lost, stolen or strayed
With coolies, black labour and lots of the sort
Ante-up is the gospel they preach in the North

Collected in Mareeba Qld in 1966 by Ron Edwards from the singing of Frank Evans and his brother and sister who had learned it from their uncle, an early overlander. Edwards noted that a diet of pig-weed and sour-thistle would not be relieved by the odd meal of poultry for fat-hen is another plant. It is also known as 'Good King Henry' and used as a substitute for spinach. 'Scabbies' were diseased sheep and 'shin-plasters' promissory notes which would often fall to pieces in the stockman's pocket before he could get to the nearest town and cash them.

The tune is the 1843 song 'Im Afloat', published in England with words by Eliza Cook and music by Henry Russell. It was enormously popular and many parodies were written to the catchy tune.

I'm Afloat

--Stewie.