I recall Margaret Walters (and I hope I have got this right) once saying that Sally Sloane changed the words of the version she had first learned to "town of Kiandra" because she knew a young man in Kiandra who was in the same position as the one in the song.

"Rantan" and "flash" are 18th century slang which came over on the convict transports and still survive in Australia after having died out in England. There are one or two others, such as "prad" for a horse, though that might be obsolete now.