Here is a Hallom original. He recorded it on his 'On the Periphery' album. The fizzer delivered mail in the Northern Territory at the turn of the 20th century. He based it on information in Jeannie Gunn's autobiography.

THE FIZZER
(Gerry Hallom)

A thousand miles in forty days
He carries the precious freight
To the homes along the bush highways
For settlers who yearn and wait
Day by day, week by week
Keeping tight to the government time
Dicing with death on the dried out creeks
Yet it’s his face not his heart that bears the lines

Chorus
A thousand miles ‘cross the great divide
Inside mail from the world outside
No sooner here than he’s gone
With a hale so long

The long dry stretch on the open downs
That’s where the fizzin’ gets done
Eighty miles till a drink is found
Then fifty more with none
The thirst of the team fixes the time
This gamble with death is played
Where the searing, scorching heat combines
With a downs that holds no shade

Chorus

A drink at the well, an all night spell
To the toughest pinch of all
Fifty miles of sunbaked hell
With a team that’s fit to fall
And here’s where the tracks are vague and tell
Of a bushman’s skill and pluck
It’s here where the last mailman fell
And they talk of the fizzer’s luck

Chorus

Is it luck to know to the very last drop
Just what a horse can do?
Luck to know just when to stop
To know when to take them through
Is it luck to have the courage to play
This game when the stakes are high?
For only those who’ve been can say
What’s faced by a man on the downs in the dry

Chorus

Sixteen days on the open downs
He takes the treacherous run
Knowing the folk at Anthony’s town
Will come out in the noonday sun
To watch for the distant moving frame
Away in the quivering glare
And death will have won in the dice-throwing game
If the fizzer is late getting down there

Chorus

Youtube clip

Ted Egan also wrote a song about the fizzer.

Ted Egan

--Stewie.