G'day Betsy and Barrie,

It's a setting of a Henry Lawson poem ... and I think the tune was one of those English tunes that A L Lloyd picked out of his diddy bag when he didn't have (or know) the Australian collected tune to start with.

In this case I'm fairly certain the particular poem-as-song was collected - but with a fairly bright and cheery tune ... I'll check back when I get home. Lloyd was working mostly from photocopies sent to the EFDSS of the carbon copies circulated between several active Australian collectors - but there were no copies of the field tapes ... that would have been far beyond the personal budgets of unfunded collectors - in those days. The minor tune Lloyd produced does not seem to have been found or known in Australia ... but the power of a larger, overseas, music publisher gives it more penetration.

A lot of Lawson's poems were sung ... indeed, 'Duke' Tritton, who went shearing in 1905 and was a very active singer said he heard Lawson sung much more often than he ever heard the poems recited.

Regards,

Bob Bolton