Lyr Req: Aussie animal poems/songs

Subject: Req. Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: bbc
Date: 12 May 01 - 04:06 PM

Hi, folks,

I wonder if our Aussie friends can give me a hand. My school is hosting a theme day featuring things Australian in early June. I will be leading a "lesson" on Australian animals in the library media center, using websites, books, & worksheets. I wondered if any of you could share lyrics or poems about Australian animals to enrich our day? I know Kookaburra already. Don't take a lot of trouble--just if something comes to mind.

Thanks,

Barbara

Subject: RE: BS: Req. Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: toadfrog
Date: 12 May 01 - 06:13 PM

Try this:

Oh kangaroo, oh kangaroo;
Be thankful that your're in the zoo!
And not transmuted by a boomerang,
To zestfull, tangy kangaroo-meringue!

O. Nash

Subject: RE: BS: Req. Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: bbc
Date: 12 May 01 - 06:41 PM

Cute, toadfrog! Thanks.

bbc

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 May 01 - 07:38 PM

bbc, I found one website which listed the other well-known song, Tie Me Kangaroo Down. I'll bet if you search on Patterson, he probably wrote some things about the critters, other than the man from Snowy River, which of course mentions the "brumbies" (sp?) (horses.)

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 May 01 - 07:50 PM

Just found a great poem he wrote on FROGS IN CHORUS

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 12 May 01 - 07:55 PM

That's great- very similar to a song my chorus sang this year. I'll add lyrics elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Callie
Date: 12 May 01 - 08:58 PM

Look for "The Drover's Dream" which mentions LOTS of animals. If you can't find it on DigiTrad or the net, I may be able to fish it out.

There's also THIS wee poem by Roger McGough (An Englishman):

To amuse emus
On warm summer nights,
Kiwis do wee-wees
From spectacular heights.

Don't be fooled: the kiwi is from New Zealand and not to be found in Australia!

Callie

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: alison
Date: 13 May 01 - 12:22 AM

I did a super search and found these in the threads

aussie animals

old man emu

there are lots of animal songs on a CD by Don Spencer (even got him in the UK doing play school when I was a kid). Good CD for kids.. all the songs are about Aussie animals "Please don't call me a koala bear for I'm not a bear at all" etc.

The CD is called "Thumbs up! Australia - Australian animal songs by don spencer

It was published by ABC for Kids 1985,88,89,...

try the don spencer page

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: alison
Date: 13 May 01 - 01:45 AM

Drover's Dream + melody line music is here

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 13 May 01 - 03:26 AM

G'day BBC,

I can dig out a few you won't have elsewhere. There is a lovely cautionary tale called The Sparrow and the Emu Egg in my anthology Singabout - Selected Reprints and a recently collected children's song that I transcribed and published in Singabout called The Possum Song.

I will look for a few more (there may be some suitable ones in some unpublished material I hold of the late Stan Wakefield (I am looking at it with his son Brian) ... as well as his previously published The Kookaburra Laughed.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 13 May 01 - 07:10 AM

Found these

I like the duck-billed platypus,
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family,
Partly birdly, partly mammally.
I like its independent attitude,
Let no-one call it a duck-billed platitude.
Ogden Nash

Le Kangourou
Kangarou premier, roi des kangourous,
Ayant accroché son grand sabre au clou,
S'assoit dans un trône en feuilles de chou,
Sa femme arrivant, pleine de courroux,
Dans sa poche a mis ses fils et ses sous,
Ses gants, son mouchoir et ses roudoudous.

Kangourou dernier, roi des kangourous,
Avait les yeux verts et les cheveux roux.
Sa femme peignait son royal époux.
Kangourou le roux, roi des kangourous,
Kangarou dernier, kangourou le roux.
Robert Desnos

The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo
(The story is too long for me to copy, but is in Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories'_

The accompanying poem is;

This is the mouth-filling song,
Of the race that was won by a Boomer,
Run in a single burst - only event of its kind -
Started by Big God Nquong from Warrigaborrigarooma,
Old Man Kangaroo first: Yellow - Dog Dingo behind.

Kangaroo bounded away;
His back legs working like pistons-
Bounded from morning till dark,
Twenty-five feet to a bound.
Yellow-Dog Dingo lay
Like a yellow cloud in the distance -
Much too busy to bark.
My! But they covered the ground!

Nobody knows where they went,
Or followed the track that they flew in,
For that Continient
Hadn't been given a name.
They ran thirty degrees,
From torres Straits to the Leeuwin
(Look at the atlas, please),
And they ran back as they came,

S'posing you could trot
From Adelaide to the Pacific,
For an afternoon's run -
Half what these gentlemen did -
You would feel rather hot,
But your legs would develop terrific -
Yes, my importunate son,
You'd be a Marvellous Kid!

Plenty of scope here for cross-curricular activities!

line breaks added by a Joe-clone

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 13 May 01 - 09:31 AM

G'day again bbc,

I looked through Singabout – Selected Reprints and Mulga Wire/Singabout indexes and came up with a list of some 13 songs and two more poems about animals / birds / fish ... excluding the many about: riding horses, herding cattle, shearing sheep, hunting kangaroos (actually there is a really amusing old one about trying to do that).

I will list them (along with some comments on possible suitability):

The Crocodile - Worldwide sailors' song, with UK and American versions, so I won't bother, unless you want the variant.
Darby Ram - Another with many UK versions
Drover's Dream - Alison has linked a version. I would have the collected version, from Bill Tovey
Little Fish - This is another one well distributed among sailors, worldwide (and even sung by Spencer Tracey in Captains Courageous -
Little Sparrow -This is the one I call The Sparrow and the Emu Egg I will get down the words and tune for you (in MIDItext format ... if you want the "sheet music" I can e-mail a 1-bit GIF of my setting – but I need your e-mail address, not the Mudcat PM).
The Old Bullock Dray -Much more concerned with the wife he intends to pick up at The Factory - The Parramatta Women Convicts' Establishment – than the bullocks, but you may be interested (if it is not on Digitrad already).
The Old Poley Cow - More or less an Australian cattle-musterer's version of The Blue-tailed fly ... interesting, but possibly not what you are after.
The Spider from the Gwydir - In Singabout as a poem, but I first knew it as a song. There is a more complete (and robust) version listed below as the The Moree Spider.
Where The Black Swans Fly - This is a setting, by Claire White, of a poem by Ted Harrington, from his book The Swagless Swaggie.
The Rabbiter Song - I published this as a Western Australian variant of Stan Wakefield's song about trapping rabbits for a living during the Great Depression of 1929 – 1930s. I would give you the straight version, from one Stan's books.

The Bream Of Ansons Bay - A bit of fisherman's tall tale, this one
The Possum Song - A children's song learned from a lady who heard it in the 1930's from an old shearer, now hired to look after her father's orchard. (After a working lifetime stooped over, shearing uncooperative sheep, a stint of reaching upwards to prune fruit trees would be like a spell in Heaven!)
3 Old Crows - One of those songs that have descended from mediæval ballads, through music hall parodies to 'folk song'. Obviously goes back further that European settlement in Australia
2 Black Crows - Another relative of the one above.
He's My Dog - A poetic tribute to "Man's Best Friend" ... winner of our 1989 verse competition (© of course)
Bunyip in the Slack Tub - Another poem, by John Warner, about a bit of creative haunting by Australia's monster of dark waterholes and eerie forests. (John has a later one about a coastal bunyip that eats tourist yachts, Too Roo Dun, but I haven't published it.)
The Moree Spider - Collected later, but probably an older, more accurate and much more robust version. Maybe the other one is better for you purposes?

Anyway, I will scape up versions of Little Sparrow, The Spider from the Gwydir, The Moree Spider, Where The Black Swans Fly , The Possum Song, He's My Dog and Bunyip in the Slack Tub .

Some of these will take a bit of scrounging, but I will get them back to you ... and post them in separate threads for each item.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: bbc
Date: 13 May 01 - 03:42 PM

Thank you to all so far, particularly Bob Bolton, for your efforts. Alan of Australia or John in Brisbane--do you have any input?

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: GUEST
Date: 13 May 01 - 08:10 PM

Here is a related thread from 1999.

Subject: Lyr Add: HE'S MY DOG and WHERE THE BLACK SWANS FLY
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:06 AM

G'day again bbc,

I won't start threads for these two poems. They may not be a lot of use to a school Theme Day, but I did mention them in an earlier post.

This one won a verse contest at the Bush Music Festival back in the 80's. It's probably a bit long (and somewhat obscure) for your purposes.

HE'S MY DOG
by David O'Connor

He was waltzing Matilda in Queensland, an ordinary sort of a bloke
His clothes had seen far better days, and his boots were a bit of a joke;
His face had met all sorts of weather, his nose showed signs of the grog;
At his heels as he shuffled along through the dust trotted a sort of a dog.
He came to a wayside grogshop, so he dropped his swag at the door,
Pushed his way through the flyscreen like thousands of swaggies before,
But the landlord was crooked on animals, said "That there mongrel must go!"
The swaggie just turned around and picked up his bluey and muttered "No!
He might he a trifle dusty, he might be a bit on the nose,
He might be a bit of a bitzer, and he's not too quick on his toes,
But he stuck with me all through the hard times, shares me tucker and grog -
He's family and friend, me and him to the end - he's my dog!"

As he scuffled away from the grogshop, the dog sort of swaggered behind,
But a Landcruiser roared up from Longreach, the driver was drunk or blind;,.
And when all the dust had settled, the swaggie lay still in the road,
And his dog lay and whimpered beside him as slowly the lifeblood flowed.
Somehow he got to a doctor, who said 'It could hardly be worse;
We'll have to go into Surgery, but put that dog outside first!'
The swaggie was barely conscious when he heard what they wanted to do;
He ripped off the bandages quick as a flash, and he muttered "No!
He might be a trifle dusty, he might he a bit on the nose,
He might be a bit of a bitzer, and he's not too quick on his toes,
But he-stuck with me all through the hard times, shares me tucker and grog-
He's family and friend, me and him to the end - he's my dog!'

They just couldn't manage to save him: the swaggie died the next day;
The dog died a little later: together they faded away.
The swaggie was buried in Winton; the dog was thrown away;
Nobody cares about paupers and dogs when they've had their day.
Saint Peter was waiting in Heaven as the dog and the swggie drew near,
Opened up the Pearly gates and handed the swaggie a beer.
He said "Here's your wings and your halo, but that there dog has to go -
No pets in Heaven!" the swaggie just said "Then together we'll burn below!
He might he a trifle dusty, he might be a bit on the nose,
He might be a bit of a bitzer, and he's not too quick on his toes,
But he stuck with me all through the hard times, shares me tucker and grog-
He's family and friend, me and him to the end - HE'S MY DOG!'

Yes he stuck with me all through the hard times, shares me tucker and grog-
He's family and friend, me and him to the end - HE'S MY DOG!'

Glossary:
Waltzing Matilda /Swaggie: Pretty well known as travelling about, carrying your swag (bedding-roll) and picking up tucker (food) as best you can.
Grogshop: Less than reputable seller of alcoholic drinks
Bitzer: Mixed breed dog (bitzer [bits of] all sorts of breeds
Landcruiser: Toyota 4WD - fairly powerful, so popular with those who are the reason that the Northern Territory does not set any speed limit out of town.
Winton: The Queensland town where Waltzing Matilda was written
.

This is Edward Harrington's poem Where the black swans fly. Harrington wrote some good gutsy stuff, but this might be a bit too "poetic" for your needs. There is a tune (which I have never heard sung) and I will transcribe to dots and on to MIDItext, it if you are interested.

Where the black swans fly
Edward Harrington

When the evening shades are falling
And the twilight round me clings,
And the swans are flying westward
With the sunset on their wings -
It is then I love to wander
And to dream of days gone by,
When the wild black swans fly westward,
And the stars come out on high.

Where the black swans fly at twilight
In the days departing beams,
Beyond the red horizon
There lies my land of dreams.
I hear their pinions beating,
I hear their plaintive cry,
Where the black swans fly at twilight,
It is there I fain would fly.

The black swans need no compass.
They need no chart nor guide.
They set their course to westward
At the fall of eventide.
Across the darkling meadows,
Their pinions wet with dew;
Where the black swans fly at twilight,
I fain would follow too.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:06 AM

G'day again,

I probably should have explained that the Australian Swan, cygnus atratus has black plumage, not white, so Harrington is simply writing about experience, not what might seem to be a fantasy to non-antipodeans.

Although Western Australia has adopted the Black Swan as its state avian emblem, they are found all over Australia and were first seen by Abel Tasman in Tasmania right at the bottom of the east, where they are commemorated by the town names Cygnet (nice folk/world music festival in mid January - high summer, locally) and Swanport (on the Swan River, of course).

Harrington's reference to them flying westward at sunset suggests he is on the east coast, as they fly inland to sheltered waterways for overnight rest.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:00 PM

Got 'em, Bob. Thanks. No need to do midi for me, but I am enjoying the words.

bbc

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: NH Dave
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:57 PM

Rolf Harris' Six White Boomers, where Santa uses six large male kangaroos to pull his sleigh down under, and return a lost joey to his mother.

Dave

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BILLYGOAT OVERLAND ('Banjo' Paterson)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:35 PM

G'day bbc,

There's no problem doing the MIDItext - it is a straight save once I have set down the tune in MusicTime and I want to supply tunes to those who desire dots ... and I frequently am prompted by interest shown in Mudcat to publish items in Mulga Wire or in Singabout.

Tell me if any of the items I have listed but not posted (Keeping in mind that I am about to post Stan Wakefield's The Kookaburra Laughed.

I will also pop in the words to 'Banjo' Paterson's poem The Billygoat Overland: I won't it in a separate thread as I an sure I have already posted it – but it hasn't made its way into the DigiTrad. It sings well to the tune of The Lincolnshire Poacher. I said I would not post songs about droving animals – but goats are a special case.

BTW: Don't risk singing this song to the goats. I did that once, while strolling about the rural village of Penrose, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands ... when I came across a flock of goats, in a paddock by the track. Next thing I knew, they had all jumped the fence and were following me. I had to lead them back home and give the farmer back his flock of prize angoras!

Enjoy!


THE BILLYGOAT OVERLAND
Words: 'Banjo' Paterson Tune: The Lincolnshire Poacher

Come all ye lads of the droving days, ye gentlemen unafraid;
I'll tell you of the strangest trip that ever a drover made.
For we rolled our swags and packed our bags, and taking our lives in hand,
Oh, we started away with a thousand goats on the Billygoat Overland.

There wasn't a fence that'ld hold the mob, to keep 'em from their desires;
They skipped along the top of the posts and cakewalked on the wires;
And whenever the lanes were bare of grass and the paddocks were nice and green,
Oh, the goats they travelled outside the lanes, and we rode in between!

The squatters started to drive them back, but that was no good at all!
The horses ran for the lick of their lives from scent that was like a wall!
And never a dog had pluck enough in front of the mob to stand,
And face the charge of a thousand goats on the Billygoat Overland.

We found we were hundreds over strength when we started to count the mob;
And they put us in jail for a crowd of thieves that travelled to steal and rob.
For every goat between here and Bourke that scented our spicy band
Had left his home and his friends to join the Billygoat Overland.

Glossary:
Swags: Bedrolls (and loose possessions) bundled for carrying
Squatters: Large holding land owners (originally "squatted" on land to which they had no title)
Bourke: About as far from Sydney as any New South Welshman would ever contemplate going (without leaving the country).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:42 PM

G'day again,

Maybe that should read "(Keeping in mind that I posted Stan Wakefield's The Kookaburra Laughed late last night)"!

This posting got away while I was checking where I had got to.

Regard(les)s,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 15 May 01 - 12:29 PM

Got it, Bob. Gee, I wonder if New York goats would react that way? We have some near my school! :)

best,

bbc

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE TRUTH OF THE STORY
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 30 May 01 - 08:41 AM

G'day bbc,

I know your presentation is nigh, but I came across this little gem and could not resist passing it on. It is sadly not credited to the author, who must have been a member of the Perth Bush Music Club, in the mid 1960s. They published it on a printed song sheet and it was reprinted in Singabout – journal of Australian Folklore, vol. 6, no. 2, 1967, Sydney. I didn't include it in my anthology Singabout – Selected Reprints, Bush Music Club, Sydney, 1985 – partly because I could not trace the author ... but it is too good not to pass on.

The tune is described as a variant of Villikins and His Dinah (better known to Americans as Sweet Betsy from Pike) but there is quite a variance.

Regards

Bob Bolton

THE TRUTH OF THE STORY

Reprinted from The Wildflower Songsheet, a publication of the Perth Bush Music Club. The composer's name is not given.
Tune: Villikins variant

I'll tell you a story that's never been told,
Of life in Australia so wide and so bold,
I've took quite a thrash - in' as any can see,
The truth of the story is written in me.
Chorus:
Written in me, boys, written in me,
The truth of the story is written in me

You've heard of the Sabre-tooth Rabbit, no doubt,
So fearsome and savage that lurks hereabout,
He nibbled my toes and he gobbled my leg,
Yes, that is the reason I walk on a peg.

Beware, oh, beware lads, the Dry-water Shark,
He crawls on the land and he sees in the dark,
So run to your mothers and shelter from harm,
Just think of this empty old sleeve on my arm.

One day while out walking I happened to pass,
A Forty-foot Tiger Snake there in the grass,
Three buckets of poison he spat in my eye,
Which made it all cloudy and burnt it up dry.

You all know the Bunyip of fable and fame,
This legendary monster once called me by name,
I shivered in fright and I quivered in fear,
As Billy the Bunyip he chewed off my car.

The Wedge Tailed Eagle, he soars in the sky,
And waits for the woollies that go drifting by,
He shore off my scalp and he dropped me for dead,
You won't see a skerrick of hair on my head.

MIDI file: truthots.mid

Timebase: 240

TimeSig: 3/4 24 8
Tempo: 128 (468750 microsec/crotchet)
Start
0480 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 60 080 0192 0 60 064 0048 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 59 080 0192 0 59 064 0048 1 60 080 0384 0 60 064 0096 1 60 080 0192 0 60 064 0048 1 72 080 0192 0 72 064 0048 1 72 080 0288 0 72 064 0072 1 72 080 0096 0 72 064 0024 1 69 080 0192 0 69 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 67 080 0288 0 67 064 0072 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0384 0 67 064 0096 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 72 080 0192 0 72 064 0048 1 72 080 0288 0 72 064 0072 1 72 080 0096 0 72 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 67 080 0288 0 67 064 0072 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 65 080 0192 0 65 064 0048 1 64 080 0288 0 64 064 0072 1 65 080 0096 0 65 064 0024 1 67 080 0384 0 67 064 0096 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 60 080 0192 0 60 064 0048 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 59 080 0192 0 59 064 0048 1 60 080 0576 0 60 064 0144 1 64 080 0096 0 64 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 72 080 0384 0 72 064 0096 1 74 080 0096 0 74 064 0024 1 72 080 0288 0 72 064 0072 1 69 080 0192 0 69 064 0048 1 67 080 0384 0 67 064 0096 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 60 080 0192 0 60 064 0048 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0096 0 62 064 0024 1 60 080 0288 0 60 064 0072 1 59 080 0192 0 59 064 0048 1 60 080 0576 0 60 064
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:
M:3/4
Q:1/4=128
K:C
G6|C2C3D|E2G2E2|DC3B,2|C4C2|c2c3c|A2G2G2|
D2G3A|G4G2|c2c3c|AG3E2|F2E3F|G4G2|C2C3D|E2G2E2|
DC3B,2|C6|EC3E2|G2c4|dc3A2|G4G2|C2C3D|E2G2E2|
DC3B,2|C19/4||

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 30 May 01 - 11:54 AM

Hi, Bob,

Yes, our event is Thursday, next week. I will use a couple of the lyrics you sent & I'm sure the kids will enjoy them. I really appreciate the help I've received here & the resources that have been provided for the group as a whole. Thanks again!

bbc

P.S.--Now, I'm trying to help the physical education teacher come up w/ a feasible Australian game or sport to play with 10-12 year olds!

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 May 01 - 12:01 AM

G'day bbc,

I knew it was pretty close, but when I saw that song I thought of all the worries visiting tourists have about Australian wildlife being a tad too wild. (Liam's Brother mentioned a nature doco from which he had learnt that " ... of the world's 10 deadliest snakes ... 10 of them live in Australia"!) The bloke who wrote this one obviously decided to get a bit of mileage out of that sort of fear.

" ... a feasible Australian game or sport to play with 10-12 year olds ..." Hmm .... ! You are certainly not going to teach them cricket in the intervening week (OK, it IS an English game, but we pride ourselves on how often we beat them at their own game!). I'm not sure there is any game that is exclusively Australian. We are pretty mad about football (3 English codes: Soccer, Rugby Union and Rugby League ... as well as our own Australian Rules), surfing and a variety of outdoor pursuits ... but these are all pretty universal.

Maybe some Aussie in the teaching or phys. ed. line will have some bright idea ... but it is next week!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: catspaw49
Date: 31 May 01 - 12:12 AM

An Aussie, name of McNew,
Had lived his life straight and true.
So when he grew old
He got very bold
And scored with a kangaroo.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 31 May 01 - 03:26 AM

Great thread you sarted here bbc.

Bob, was "He's my dog" as recent as the 80s? I heard it recited a couple of times, but can't recall who by. Great to see the words - a wondeerful poem!

Do you remember an Australian magazine of the 40/50s - "Outback" was the name I think? It had a comic strip about a wombat and his mates, and poems. My gandmother had an Aussie "handyman", Bob, on her 5 acre "farm", who had them posted to him. As a kid, I used to plow my way through a year's supply (cartoons first) as soon as I arrived for the Xmas hol's. Ahh the memories...

Cheers - Sam (NZ)

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 31 May 01 - 09:00 AM

G'day Bill the Bus (no relation of Laurie the Truck ...?)

That poem won our verse competition in 1989 ... and the conditions included that it not be previously published, so I presume it dates from 1988/9. A lot of poets do a good job of keeping up old styles and sentiments.

I can't remember Outback magazine (around that time, my Christmas treat was a bundle of English children's magazine in the Christmas parcel from an old friend my grandmother left back in England when she married Granddad and followed him to Australian when he was demobbed from WWI).

The comic strip sounds a bit like Ken Emerson's The Warrumbunglers - but that is somewhat later ('60s to present). I'll see if I can dig up anything on it. The "Bushman's Bible", up to that decade, was The Bulletin ... they did a lot of great cartoons and stories... but not much comic strip.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 03:27 AM

Thanks Bob,

T'was Phil Garland whom I heard recite He's My Dog so it could well have been the early 90s when he last visited the Island. Haven't seen him in the flesh (lots of it) since.

Definitely not The BulletinWide World?

Anyway, having yapped in the Pub with an Oz of our vintage (I'm broad-minded), I was reminded of Coles Funny Picture Book. Remember that one cobber?...;)

For those who ain't flaming kerlonials - it was published by "Coles Book Arcade" in Melbourne (I think) in the late 1800s. Full of children's "precautionary tales" - I'm sure the were some Aussie-specific animal poems in it. Hope to pick up a copy later tonight...

Will keep you posted

It's too late for your purpose, bbc, but could be of use for future reference.

Cheers - Sam (in childhood)

Subject: RE: Req: Aussie Animal Poems/Lyrics
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 01 Jun 01 - 05:12 AM

Ummm...

Coles Funny Picture Book is now to hand. Sorry - lots of poems about cats. dogs and other such boring beasties - nothing on genuine Aussie critters, from a quick flick thru'...

BUT....

I now have a wonderful resource of kid's stuff from the late 1800's on long term loan. It's 206 pages, and absolutely chokka with late 1880s kid's poems (2,000+ at a guess), etchings (ca500) and text - too small to OCR alas..

Will keep you posted...

Sam (very confused)