G'day Cobber,

Yeah ... I never really got a good grip on that one ... it has some of the style of the Jack Donahoe ballads, but is clearly a different tale ... goldrush setting rather than Donahoe's 1820s. I see Jack Lefroy was a Vance Palmer Old Austalian Bush Songs item (where Stewart & Keesing got it from) .. but Stan Arthur also collected a version - and published it with music (arranged by himself). I must get all those together some time and get a better feel for the song!

Lefroy doesn't match up with any of the bushrangers I know of ... the somg actually sounds much more like the English "Confession" or "Gallows" ballads ...maybe it's a localisation of that tradition, rather than the Irish traditions that are very strong in the bushranging canon.

Regards,

Bob