Origins: Flash Jack From Gundagai

Subject: FLASH JACK FROM GUNDEGAI
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 04:54 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCAmG3Tyyzo
bERT lLOYD, Does anyone have a clip of Martyn Wundham Read singing this?

Subject: RE: FLASH JACK FROM GUNDEGAI
From: GerryM
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 05:57 PM

I don't have a clip, but it's on his Undiscovered Australia CD, see https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/flashjackfromgundagai.html

Subject: add: Flash Jack from Gundagai
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 08:18 PM

The video in the first post doesn't play in the US, but this one might:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTfy0udL0To

Flash Jack from Gundagai

I’ve shore at Burrabogie, and I’ve shore at Toganmain,
I’ve shore at big Willandra and upon the old Coleraine,
But before the shearin’ was over I’ve wished myself back again
Shearin’, for old Tom Patterson, on the One Tree Plain.

Chorus
All among the wool, boys,
Keep your wide blades full, boys,
I can do a respectable tally myself whenever I like to try,
But they know me round the back blocks as Flash Jack from Gundagai.

I’ve shore at big Willandra and I’ve shore at Tilberoo,
And once I drew my blades, my boys, upon the famed Barcoo,
At Cowan Downs and Trida, as far as Moulamein,
But I always was glad to get back again to the One Tree Plain.

Chorus: All among the wool, etc.

I’ve pinked ’em with the Wolseleys and I’ve rushed with B-bows, too,
And shaved ’em in the grease, my boys, with the grass seed showing through.
But I never slummed my pen, my lads, whate’er it might contain,
While shearin’ for old Tom Patterson, on the One Tree Plain.

I’ve been whalin’ up the Lachlan, and I’ve dossed on Cooper’s Creek,
And once I rung Cudjingie shed, and blued it in a week.
But when Gabriel blows his trumpet, lads, I’ll catch the morning train,
And I’ll push for old Tom Patterson’s, on the One Tree Plain.

“I’ve pinked ’em with the Wolseleys, and I’ve rushed with B-bows, too.” — Wolseleys and B-bows are respectively machines and hand-shears, and “pinking” means that he had shorn the sheep so closely that the pink skin showed through. “I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week,” i.e., he was the ringer or fastest shearer of the shed, and he dissipated the earnings in a single week’s drunkenness.

“Whalin’ up the Lachlan.” — In the old days there was an army of “sundowners” or professional loafers who walked from station to station, ostensibly to look for work, but without any idea of accepting it. These nomads often followed up and down certain rivers, and would camp for days and fish for cod in the bends of the river. Hence whaling up the Lachlan.

Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 26-27

Source: https://www.australianculture.org/flash-jack-from-gundagai-1905/

Subject: RE: Origins: Flash Jack from Gundagai
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 08:50 PM

Joe Offer wrote: “Whalin’ up the Lachlan.” — In the old days there was an army of “sundowners” or professional loafers who walked from station to station, ostensibly to look for work, but without any idea of accepting it. These nomads often followed up and down certain rivers, and would camp for days and fish for cod in the bends of the river. Hence whaling up the Lachlan.

Which starts us off-topic, but it leads to a complex of "Lachlan" songs, e.g. "Four Little Johnny Cakes"/"Camping in the Bend," also from Old Bush Songs:
Hurrah for the Lachlan,
Come join me in my cheer,
For that's the place to make a cheque
At the end of every year."
The singer was "camping in the bend" and fishing... and occasionally "borrowing" from the people who actually do work.

We also find sundowners in "The Wallaby Track," which is also about those who wander but don't really work. The term is attested as early as 1869.

"Flash" is a British term, but the Australians really seem to have adopted it: Charles R. Thatcher wrote "The Flash Colonial Barman," plus Old Bush Songs has "The Flash Stockman," and there is also a song of "The Flash Sydney Shearers." There was also a broadside, "A New Flash Song, Made on the Noted George Barrington."

And I'm clearly getting into one of my information-spouting moods, so I will stop before I become even more boring than I have already been!

Subject: RE: Origins: Flash Jack from Gundagai
From: Reinhard
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 09:39 PM

Martyn Wyndham-Read's Flash Jack From Gundagai / A Bush Lullaby on his album Emu Plains.

Subject: RE: Origins: Flash Jack From Gundagai
From: GerryM
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 01:15 AM

The chorus should start,

All among the wool, boys, all among the wool.
Keep your wide blades full, boys, keep your wide blades full.

Thérèse Radic, Songs of Australian Working Life, prints it the way I have it, and writes, "The words are from Banjo Patterson's Old Bush Songs but Paterson's chorus length has been adjusted to fit the tune."

Subject: RE: Origins: Flash Jack From Gundagai
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 01:40 AM

Martyn Wyndham-Read, great voice