THE OUTSIDE TRACK
Henry Lawson (1896), tune Gerry Hallom (1982)

Henry Lawson's fellow scribblers for "The Bulletin" were "the careless men" whose mateship was like that of the swagmen on the lonely bush tracks. The group fed apart as they each felt the need to prove themselves in the "mother country."   

There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay and one on the for'ard hatch;
No straighter man to his mates than he had ever said: "Len's a match!"
'Twill be long, old man, ere our glasses clink, 'twill be long ere we grasp your hand!.
And we dragged him ashore for a final drink, till the whole wide world seemed grand.

For they marry and go as the world rolls back they marry and vanish and die
But their spirit shall live on the outside track, as long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist that rolled from the waters green;
And over the railing we grasped his fist as the dark tide came between.
We cheered the captain and cheered the crew, and our mate, times out of mind;
We cheered the land he was going to and the land he had left behind.

We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell but my heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell when the steamer passed the point.
We drifted home thought the public bars, we were ten times less by one
Who had sailed out under the morning stars, and under the rising sun.

And one by one, and two by two, they have sailed from the wharf since then
I have said good-bye to the last I knew, the last of the careless men,
And I can't but think that the times we had were the best times after all,
As I turn aside with a lonely glass and drink to the barroom wall.

These words were taken from Margaret Walter's website, at
Margaret Walters