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16 Oct 99 - 11:43 AM (#124590) Subject: Lyr Add: WALLABY STEW From: Shimbo Darktree An Australian song from the late 1800s - author unknown WALLABY STEW ^^^ Poor Dad he got five years or more, as everybody knows, And now he lives in Maitland gaol, broad arrows on his clothes. He branded old Brown's cleanskins, and he never left a tail, So I'll relate the family's fate since Dad got put in gaol.
So stir the wallaby stew, make soup with the kangaroo's tail,
Our sheep all died a month ago, they all got flamin' fluke. |
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13 May 01 - 12:55 PM (#461434) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Charley Noble Worth refreshing from time to time. |
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13 May 01 - 03:33 PM (#461503) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: bbc Thanks, Charley! bbc |
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14 May 01 - 03:14 AM (#461795) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Bob Bolton G'day bbc, That is pretty close to the version, collected by Alan Scott, that I published about 20 years back in Mulga Wire. I will check when I get home. I was not really bothering with songs about eating (or stealing if it comes to that) various animals ... unless they had a good point for the kids. This skips past quite a lot of Australian songs! Regard(les)s, Bob Bolton |
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14 May 01 - 11:52 AM (#462002) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: GUEST,bbc at work That's fine, Bob. I won't be able to use them all, anyhow. Just give me whatever suits your fancy. Thanks, Barbara |
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26 Nov 06 - 11:45 AM (#1893978) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Shields Folk Does it taste like chicken? |
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27 Nov 06 - 07:16 PM (#1894092) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Rowan No, Shields, it tastes like wallaby or kangaroo. Cheers, Rowan |
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27 Nov 06 - 08:57 PM (#1894175) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: The Fooles Troupe Or maybe even, if you'll pardon me saying this - Potaroo... I'm not making this up as I go along, you know... |
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27 Nov 06 - 09:12 PM (#1894182) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Charley Noble Foolestroupe- Good Lord! Are you trying to educate us? How anyone could ever butcher and stew some poor little wallaby is hard for me to swallow. We were feeding the little dears, holding hands with them (actually being drgged by them into the bushes so they could avoid the ravenous wild ducks) when we visited the wildlife park in Port Douglas. Their "breakfast with the birds" most certainly did not include wallaby sausage. But it is a great song! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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27 Nov 06 - 10:46 PM (#1894240) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Rowan You're a softie, Charley. Traditionally, such animals (even as large as a Plains Red) were just chucked onto the top of the fire and roasted without gutting or skinning them, unless the skin was wanted for something like a cloak. Even then, most cloaks were made from skins of possums and koalas. Carcases cooked like this are usually ... rare, to say the least. The sinews from the hind legs were used for bindings for some types of tools and were usually removed before the fire treatment. Stews were introduced by whitefellas, who had pots. While I don't go after roos to eat, and am quite happy to let the Eastern Greys clutter up my driveway every morning and demolish things I plant, kangaroo meat is healthier than most European-origin quadruped meats. Cheers, Rowan |
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28 Nov 06 - 05:22 AM (#1894375) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Bob Bolton G'day Rowan, OK ... I'll blow Charley's cover! He has happily eaten Red Kangaroo steaks cooked by me ... at JennyO and Jack Halyard's backyard barbecue ... lightly marinated in Aussie red wine and a dask of herbs and spices. Very nice they were ... very low in fat, nice little trace of 'gamey' tang, tender to eat - as long as you know just how little to cook them! Regards, Bob |
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28 Nov 06 - 09:35 AM (#1894601) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Charley Noble blush... Charley Noble, who's been known to dine at the Roâd Kill Café. |
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17 Jan 09 - 05:30 AM (#2541100) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: GUEST,Gerry The lyrics as given in this thread are a little different from those in the DT, and both are a little different from what's in Ron Edwards' Great Australian Folk Songs. First line of 2nd stanza, Edwards has "Our sheep all died a month ago, of footrot and the fluke," which I think I like better than what's in the DT. The next line in Edwards starts, "Our cow got shot last Christmas day" - can someone tell me what "Our cow got boozed" means? The line above that goes, "That won't be all that's up the spout when Dad gets out of gaol," in Edwards it's "That won't be all that isn't junked when Dad comes out of gaol." What does that mean, "That won't be all that isn't junked"? |
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17 Jan 09 - 11:24 AM (#2541365) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Bob the Postman I always heard it as "our cow was blued", i. e., the proceeds from the pawning of the cow were wasted on a drunken spree. And "that won't be all that isn't jugged", i. e., either in pawn or pregnant. |
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18 Feb 09 - 12:21 AM (#2569733) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Bob Bolton G'day Gerry, "Our cow got boozed" has a few omissions ... it means: "(What I got by selling our cow got boozed [downed, by me, as booze]". The song sets out to represent a family in decline ... in all aspects! "Junked" is interesting ... I'll see if I can dig out the original collected texts and find out if this is original ... or a bit of creative licence by a revival singer. Regards, Bob |
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23 Jun 20 - 05:08 AM (#4060894) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: Richard Mellish I think it was Severn who sang this in yesterday's Mudcat Singaround, with words more or less as in the DigiTrad. I noticed many differences from the song as I know it so I thought I might as well post my version. I got it from a recording of one of Bert Lloyd's Folksongs of Australia radio programmes but I've made some changes. Besides a few very small changes, my version swaps the second halves of verses 2 and 3, so that "that ain't all that's up the spout" at the end of verse 2 sets the scene for verse 3 telling of the doings of Bess's young man (who "certainly worked on her") as well as the doings of Mother's shearer cove, both leading to "the family will have grown a bit". Poor Dad he got five years or more as everybody knows And now he's stuck in Maitland Jail broad arrows on his clothes He branded old Brown's clean skins and he never left a tail Now I'll relate the family's fate since Dad got put in jail So stir the wallaby stew, make soup of the kangaroo tail, I'll tell you things is pretty crook since Dad got put in jail. Our sheep all died last springtime, from footrot and the fluke Our cow got shot last Christmas by my drunken brother Luke The buggy's bust, the wheat has smut (rust?) and the place is up for sale And that ain't all that's up the spout since Dad got put in jail Our Bess got stuck on some young bloke but he's gone we don't know where He worked around the shearing shed and he certainly worked on her And Mother has a shearer cove for ever within hail The family will have grown a bit since Dad got put in jail They let Dad out before his time to give us a surprise He came and took a look around and gently cursed our eyes He shook hands with the shearer cove and reckoned things looked stale Then he slowly spat on the old dirt floor and battled back into jail |
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23 Jun 20 - 09:25 PM (#4061097) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: keberoxu This does remind me strangely of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport, Tie Me Kangaroo Down..." |
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24 Jun 20 - 12:21 AM (#4061113) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Wallaby Stew From: JennieG Ah......no. We don't sing Rolf Harris songs anymore. |