G'day Kenny B,

I don't know how solid Wee Eric would make the connection to Slim Dusty. He was into country styles well before he came to Australia ... but he can hardly have not heard a lot of Slim once he was here ... and a good songwriter absorbs everything ... and gives back the good bits!

By the way, my memory was faulty ... the poem I was thinking of, from Singabout, vol. 3, no. 1, Summer 1958, was:

MALONEY'S COCKATOO

'Twas on a river bank I met, nor far from By and By,
An ancient man of bitter speech, there was murder in his eye.
His gaze was lifted heavenward, where in the taller trees,
A bunch of drowsy cockatoos were perched at noon-day ease.
"I'd like to choke the cows!" he said," Their flaming necks to screw,
There aint a curse in all this world to beat a cockatoo."

"Just forty years ago," he said," I had a slap-up team
Of bullocks, carting stores and wool along the Darling stream,
Yes! Four-and-twenty of the best - I was a big gun then;
Could fill 'em up and speak my turn, with any class of men.
I was a cove as gained respect where ever bullocks drew,
Until my life was blighted by a flaming cockatoo."

"I'd loaded up at Bog-a-Duck, with stores from off the boat,
Then, feeling sort of parched inside, I thought I'd damp me throat.
I left the bullocks in the road, contented in their yokes,
And in Maloney's bar I met a lot of station blokes;
Old friends of mine, the drinks went round, the way they used to do.
I never thought no mischief from Maloney's cockatoo."

"He was an educated bird, the sort you know may be,
Could sing and whistle, curse and swear, the same as you and me.
Oh well, we downed our drinks, and laughed and talked the time away
When a lady friend of mine came in, excited-like, to say,"
'Hi Bill, you blanky fool,' she says, 'Come out, and lively too,
Your flaming team's been started by that blooming cockatoo!,' ".

"Struth, she was right, through clouds of dust they showed,
With cocky on the waggon perched; I sprinted down the road,
And as I drew near I heard him shout, like one who knew the trade,
'Gee off, you crimson crocodiles' The cranky cows obeyed.
'Gee off.' While I was still behind, I saw the leaders slew
Right over to that river bank, drove by that cockatoo."

"I saw the bubbles rising as I leaned against a post,
Where Spot and Brindle and the rest, was giving up the ghost.
One living thing alone escaped, high in the air it flew
In screeching triumph to the pub, Maloney's cockatoo.
That broke me heart!" The ancient raised his eyes aloft once more
And in that mellow afternoon, blood-curdling oaths he swore.

The sweet bush blooms were round his feet; he paid no heed to these
But wished that he had wings to reach those blighters in the trees.
So from that sylvan solitude, I turned and bade adieu,
To one whose life was blighted by a flaming cockatoo.

From the collection of Matt O'Connor, Wilcannia.

There aren't too many obscure terms, but here's a quick gloss -

Glossary:
Station = Usual Australian term for a large rural property (~= 'ranch')
Cow = Australian general epithet for any one or thing of little use or respect
Blanky = Milder (euphemised) Australian form of 'Bloody'
Flaming = Mild Australian epithet
Crimson = Another (more literary?) euphemism for 'Bloody'
Blighter = A more English epithet for any one of little respect.

We have an oversupply of mad cockatoos in this country ... some of them with wings (cockatoos also means a farmer/pastoralist).

Regards,

Bob Bolton