Lyr. Add: THE DYING STOCKMAN Mick Dolan

A strapping young stockman lay dying,
With his saddle supporting his head,
His two mates around him were crying,
As he rose on his elbow and said:

Chorus-
Wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket,
And bury me deep down below,
Where the dingoes and crows won't molest me,
In the shade where the coolibahs grow.

Oh had I the flight of a bronzewing,
Far over the plains I would fly,
Straight back to the land of my childhood,
And there would I lay down and die.

And cut down a couple of saplings,
Place one at my head and my toe,
Carve on them crossed stockwhip and saddle,
To show there's a stockman down below.

There's tea in the battered old billy,
Place pannikins out in a row,
We'll drink to the next merry meeting,
In the land where all good fellows go.

Hark, there is the wail of a dingo,
Watchful and weird I must go,
For it tolls the death of the stockman,
from the gloom of the scrub down below.

And oft in the shade of the twilight,
When the soft winds are whispering low,
And the darkening shadows are falling,
Sometimes think of the stockman down below.

Mick Dolan commented "I learnt that in the bush amongst all the ringers." Recorded 1969.

The note says that although this is one of the most popular of Australian folk songs, it is rare, in my experience, for a singer to remember a version as complete as this one.
There are several titles to the song, including Down Where the Coolibahs Grow," "Dying Bagman," "Dying Fettler," "Dying Harlot," "Dying Aviator," "Dying Bargehand," "Dying Digger," Dying Sleeper Cutter," "Can't Hook," "Wedges," "Dying Treasurer."

In several versions, the two mates are Blacks.

Possible composer- Horace Alfred Flower, Qld 1892 (various letters from Flower's son). "The song was published in the Portland Mirror, July 8, 1885," but 1892 was also given.
In "Colonial Ballads," 1962, p. 157, the date was given as 1882. Bill Scott in "Complete Book of Australian Folklore, 1976, p. 138, the date is 1892.
Phil Butterss found it in the Queenslander 18 Aug 1894.

Australian Folklore Society Journal, Issues 1-20 (Aug. 1991). Found on line.