Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DRIVERS' SONG (Australian)
From: Fergie
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 08:28 PM

G'day

Was doing research into my convict ancestor at The Throve website when I happened upon this song published in Mercury Sat 26th Aug. 1876 Page 3

This link will take you there. The lyrics are in the middle of an interesting article
The Drivers' Song
I have transcribed the lyrics and pasted them below.

Fergus

THE DRIVERS' SONG

With tarpaulins unfolded at close of the day,
Behold us encamped by the side of our dray,
Forgetting the hills and the gullies we've passed,
Content to have reached a safe haven at last.

Forgetting the troubles of Blucher or Snip,
Who heeded no shouting, no swearing, or whip,
Who "jibbed" at the "pinches,'' and scarce gave a pull,
To help us along with our burden of wool.

The low flats are boggy, the rises are steep,
The "blind creeks" are dusty; the rivers are deep.
Old bullocks! You've work to do and be done,
And long is your stage from the rise of the sun,

Both offside and nearside are animals fine,
Fond looks from their mild eyes at times flash to mine,
With kindness I rule them, and this they well know.
As unyoked after toil to new pastures they go.

Good luck, fellow drivers wherever you steer.
May your lives from misfortune and bad grog be clear,
May you follow your calling with honour and pride,
And reach fortune's summit by means of green hide.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)
From: GUEST,warren fahey
Date: 27 Jun 11 - 06:04 PM

thanks for uploading this - I do extensive Trove searches and missed this one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 02:01 AM

For those who don't want to weed through the article, let me add some details extrapolated from it:

Printed in the Mercury, Fitzroy, Victoria, AU, on 26 August 1876.
Article: "Personal Adventures, or lights and shades of colonial life" by George E. Loyau. (Apparently just one installment in this series, as the story picks up mid-way.)

Loyau was relating a trip which he (apparently unexperienced in the ways outside the city) was taken on to mines in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. He heard the song when spending a night at a bullock-drivers' camp on a ridge. The singer was Ned Allright, a native of Hawkesbury (District?, an unsettled area of the Blue Mountains northward from there). Ned also sang (if I recall) "Bold Donohue" and another song.

About the present song, Loyau said:
The above sung in a loud tone and interspersed with the chorus of "too-ral-loo-ral-ido" [...]

I was also interested in the sequel, a retelling of a tale by "Cannibal Joe" Bowers about how he came by that name. That tale, though it talks of "New England" and "Maryland" must be referring to a gold-mining part of New South Wales west or north of Newcastle. I was unable to locate several spots referred to in the tale, notably "the Clarence" (river?) and the town "Taberium".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)
From: JennieG
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 08:00 AM

The Clarence River is in northern New South Wales, and Tabulam is on the Clarence. Part of northern New South Wales (just north of where I live, in fact) is called New England.

Several years ago we drove through Tabulam, it's lovely country.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 11:43 AM

Many thanks for that info. I tried a bunch of variations on "Taberium"--maybe the print actually said "Taberlum", which was one of the variants I tried. As Maxwell Smart said, "Missed it by that much."

Then I'm guessing Maryland is the one between Warwick and Tenterfield, close to Dalveen and Applethorpe, northwest from Tabulam. It all clicks now. Google Maps only gave me the town outside Newcastle, until I explicitly added "New England".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Drivers' Song (Australian)
From: JennieG
Date: 28 Jun 11 - 11:11 PM

I don't know how old the term 'New England' is - probably dates from the early 1820s or so, when the area was first settled by whites. My local library has a good collection of books on the history of the area so one of these days I will check it out. It was certainly in use in the 1870s.

An interesting book, if you can get hold of it (but not an easy read, however it pays to persist with it) is William Telfer's Wallabadah Manuscript, edited by Roger Milliss. Telfer was born in 1841 and worked as a station hand in the Tamworth/New England areas, and early in the 20th century wrote down his reminiscences.

Cheers
JennieG