Google Book Search found this quote:

ADVICE TO A YOUNG SWAGMAN

When you're stoney broke and walking
An' your tucker bag is flat,
It will never get you nowhere
If you start to whip the cat, ...

from
"Duke of the Outback: The Adventures of a Shearer Named Tritton"
by John Meredith
Ascot Vale : Red Rooster Press, 1983.

Unfortunately, since the book is still under copyright, only that brief "snippet" is viewable.

However, the author (or at least collector/performer) of the poem seems to be Harold Percy Croydon "Duke" Tritton (1886-1965).