G'day Rob,

Given the the claim: " ... Bushells - Our Cuppa Since 1883 ..." it's quite possible that Bushells had a hand in the origins of the song ... but that needs a lot of trawling through old newsprint ...

However, given the spill of fresh song versions and 'oldest found ...' coming out of recent "Trove" searches ... from OCRed and linked scans of 19th century newspapers - someone may find the definitive answer!

Regard(les)s,

Bob