Country meets City
There was a popular saying: 'Sydney or the Bush!' It was offered as almost a dare as if the two were miles apart � and, of course, they were and still are. Viva le difference! Sydney was also known as the city of four S's � Sea, Sin, Sex and Sorrow. There is much folklore surrounding bushies coming down to the 'Big Smoke' and, sadly, many of these trips were an extremely sorrowful story. It's true the cashed-up bush worker was occasionally 'lambed down' in the first or even second outback shanty he ventured into, but, in some ways, this was preferable to the 'lambing down' those who did reach the city often experienced, most of it self-inflicted! The reality is that many the isolated bush worker bolstered his (and sometimes her) routine boredom by thinking of the eventual 'great escape' to Sydney to 'live it up'. Tales were told and retold in the shearing huts, drover's camps and wayside shanties, of how the city 'eats bush people for breakfast' but this only added to their determination to experience for themselves. There are also stories of cityslickers venturing into the bush � an equally scary proposition for many the new chum.

  • Sydney Folklore Project CONTENTS



    • SECTION 12: Country meets City

    This song, taken from a Sydney-published magazine, is typical of the satirical songs composed to take the 'mickey' out of local issues and politicians.

    Song of the Australian Squatter
    Tune: Rory O'More


    The following bush ballad is a wonderful journey through the life of an old time shearer. Duke Tritton shore in many of these sheds and is the person who carried the words of the anonymous bush song 'Goorianawa' into the mid-1950s.

    Shearing in the Bar
    Written by Duke Tritton


    The following handwritten account tells of Australian tramps from an American perspective of the late 1930s.

    Tramps

    This fine song details the journey of an itinerant shearer of the nineteenth century. It has references to some of the major sheds including Goorianawa. The reference to 'toby' doing his work has always puzzled me until, recently, I discovered it was another reference to the custom of 'raddling' the sheep's back. This was where the squatter landlord could 'paint' the shorn sheep's back signifying it had been badly shorn and therefore the shearer would not receive payment. A 'toby' was a reference to the raddle brush. I have recorded a version of this song on 'A Panorama Of Bush Songs'.

    Goorianawa

    Damn
    1880s
    Damn Coolgardie, damn the track
    Damn it there and damn it back
    Damn the country, damn the weather
    Damn the goldfields altogether

    On Bourke's heat
    The only message from the dead
    That ever came distinctly through
    Was send my overcoat to hell
    It came to Bourke in 92


    The Bulletin
    Jingle for first issue.
    The Bulletin, the Bulletin,
    The journalistic javelin
    The paper all the humour's in
    The paper to inspire and grin
    The Bulletin, the Bulletin

    Horses & The Bulletin
    Whalers, damper, swag and nosebag, Johnny cakes and billy tea
    Murrumburrah, meremendicoowoke, youlabudgeree
    Cattle duffers. Bold bushrangers diggers, drovers, bush race courses,
    And on all the other pages horses, horses, horses, horses


    This song is typical of several turn-of-the-century bush songs in as much as it localises the story bringing in the name of the station cook. A sure recipe for a laugh. It also has racist overtones by today's standard where the Aboriginal woman is referred to as a gin and a replacement for a real woman. I doubt if, at the time, it was seen as racist since it was commonplace. If anything it was extremely insensitive.

    Off To The Shearing
    MSS/Mitchell
    Papers of W H L Morfew
    Nov 1911. Handwritten memoir

    The Australian Pastoralists' Review

    This newspaper was published on behalf of farm owners and operators and, understandably, expressed opposition to Unionism. It provides an alternative perspective to the usual shed songs.

    Shearing's Over
    March 1899
    AFU Mss File.

    Oh, when the shearing's over,
    We will live in clover,
    And then, and then – and then
    We'll live like gentlemen.

    With a note: "This was the chorus of a song I heard in one of the sheds on the river, and now that the shearing is actually over I am trying to discover where the life a gentleman comes in.”
    Sept 1893


    This next item needs to be read in conjunction with the following piece which is 'an answer' from the pasturalists. It also carried a note 'unionism is not always strength'. As they say 'Them's fightin' words!'

    P.U. Ticket
    The above extracted from a labour organ. We now publish the Conclusion

    The Industry Conclusion
    By Jimmy The ringer
    March 1888
    A poem that invokes the legendary outback station, The Speewa.

    Camels
    By Jimmy The ringer


    Some Auction
    From 'The Riverina, People and Property' R Ronald. 1960.

    When Burrabogie Station, in the Riverina, was auctioned in February, 1882, the auctioneer was heard to open his address with 'Gentlemen! I am not trying to sell you a station. I am offering you a principality!'

    From The Barrier Weekly Post
    1898
    Description of a concert at a shearing shed.

    Mr McCallum, the manager of Balaclava Station, whilst listening to some shearers singing in the shed about a fortnight ago, thought that there was sufficient talent to give a very respectable entertainment; and, being a gentleman of action, he at once suggested a concert in aid of the Catholic Orphanage. The shearers immediately agreed and the following Saturday the shed was crowded. The entertainment took the form of the usual minstrel and variety show.

    PROGRAM.
    • A Soldier and His man
    • Comic Medley
    • Pretty Bidd
    • He Hadn't Been Used To Luxuries
    • Parody on A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother
    • The Miner's dream of Home
    • A Magic Paper Act
    • A Clog Dance
    • A Farce: The Theatrical Agent
    • A Dutch broken accent recitation
    • Accordion music.


    Queensland Punch
    April 1890

    The Queensland Punch Magazine had a fascination for the 'famed Barcoo' and provided it with mythical status along the lines of the Speewah. It also published several songs highlighting the Barcoo lifestyle.

    Barcoo Shout
    The Queensland Punch Magazine

    The Bonnie Barcoo
    The Queensland Punch Magazine
    (Tune: Bonnie Dundee)



    Punch Christmas Chronicle
    January 1893

    "When it was known that he could play the piano he at once became in great request, and after 'vamping' for varous singers, who either sang of their lost loves, or sea songs full of loud 'yo ho's', he was called upon to contribute something to the hilarity of the evning. he at once complied by singing some verses which he had made at Hillton, which he called The Song of the Jackaroo'

    The Song of the Jackaroo
    (Tune: A Bushman's Life For me)


    I have collected fragments of this song twice and its localised pioneering story seems to have been widely popular.

    New Colonial songbook 1865

    Thought to have been written by Phillip 'Remos' Somer a member of Cunningham's exploration party.

    Kennedy's Men
    (Tune; Bonnie Dundee)


    Here's an unusual bush song which I discovered in a rare reminiscence folder in the Mitchell library of NSW. It was dated 1873 by Joe Johnson who presumably worked on Carringa Station, which is situated on the Thompson River, Qld. It also had a note saying, “sung by Little Watty Wylie and Wally the Wrinkler”

    Hurrah for the Life of a Stockman
    (Air: The Jolly Wagoner)


    The Australian Star
    Oct 20 1877 issue

    I have been singing a song known as 'The Station Cook' for over twenty-five years and, looking through a South Australian weekly newspaper, discovered the original including the name of the composer P J McGovery. The only other time this song has been collected is an inclusion in the Percy Jones/Burl Ives collection and subsequently included in the Stewart & Keesing edition of Old Bush Songs

    The Shearer's Hardships
    (Air: Knickerbocker Line)


    The Australian Star - 1878
    (Extracted from the Tramp columns)

    "The bushman is about the greatest humbug I have come across for many along day. He is so long-winded when he once starts a yarn there is no telling when he will stop. Last night after we had turned in he nagged and talked Jack and me to sleep. I awoke sometime in the middle of the night, and he was still talking away and quoting scraps of poetry. The last few days he has been constantly asking
    Will winter never pass? A child said peering through the pain."

    He always said he had been "born hard-up" and "That there is nothing poetical about sundowning."

    There was a squatter so mean if it were possible he'd kill half a sheep at a time.

    Going up to the kitchen we will deposit our swags and, if the cook is in a good mood, we will have a mug of tea, light our pipes, and then stroll up to Government House in quite a careless fashion., and inquire for the boss. Jack is always spokesman. "Good evening, sir, Any chance of a job?" "No, I am full-handed at present." "Oh, I suppose we can stay tonight?' and stay we do. Sometimes, for a change, Jack will ask if anyone is sick on the station; and when asked wha6t he asks such a question for, will answer "Well, if the man is very bad I would camp in the creek, and wait for him to die, then there might be a chance of a job.'

    Australian Melodist No 21

    The 'Duff' was a popular part of our bush eating tradition and came in all shapes and sizes and, one suspects, tastes. The Christmas Plum Duff inspired the original magic pudding.

    Olden "Duff"
    [Parody on "Golden Love")
    Lance Lenton


    The Stockwhip Magazine
    Jan 8th 1876 Vol 11 No 2 Mitchell

    Here is a very early, probably the second time the song was published, version of the song commonly known as 'The Stockman's Last Bed'. The first published appearance was the Queensland Native Companion Songster in 1865 however this version is slightly different and was already denoted as 'an old song'.

    The Stockman's Lament


    Burrabogie Station
    Mitchell Library - Mitchelmore Mss papers.

    Joseph McGraw & Co sold Burrabogie station by auction in Feb 1882. At the sale the auctioneer called out "Gentlemen, I am not trying to sell you a station. I am offering you a principality!"

    The Austalian Sundowner
    WALTER KILROY HARRIS IN COLONIAL LIFE, MARCH 1919

    . Journeying through the Darling country the traveler hears snatches of old bush poems, which have been handed down for the past twenty-five years, and even longer in many cases. The recitations, in part or in full, were firm favourites in the shearing sheds in those days. The old-time shearer has gone, a new class of man having taken his place, but even now quite a number of these poems are served up at some sheds. In nine cases out of ten the author has long since been forgotten, and after delivering himself of one of these bush ballads, the contributor of that particular portion of the evening's entertainment starts a heated discussion as to the origin of the poem. I struck a shed the other day, out near Wilcannia, where "Jimmy the Rambler" was well remembered as an old time identity of the early days, when Shank's Pony was the general mode of locomotion, and the horse and packhorse denoted the 'big gun' shearer. Since then "Shanks" has gone out of date, and the place of the famous pony, so far as the shearer is concerned at any rate, has been taken by the bike, both 'push' and motor. One of these ballads was woven round this "Jimmy the Rambler," but, as in most cases, the old hands remember only part of this poem.

    The first line runs � "The rambler's in on the river again, he's after doing a cruise."
    After telling of "The Spieler who is out to shear the shearer,"
    Another verse goes �
    "But on the other hand, my boys, things don't look quite so bright,
    With coloured moles and cotton shirts and pockets rather light."

    In another verse "Jimmy" is credited with having said �
    "They're camping in the Shearers' huts, they're camping in the sheds,
    And down upon the Lignum flats they're forced to make their beds."

    Another of these old-time bush literary efforts that could well be resurrected commenced with �
    "The travelling tinker and the 'Whaler,' and the Murrumbidgee sailor,
    And the shearer from the Billabong who never calls for tar,
    They all courted little Maggie at the old bush shanty bar.'

    Australian Journal - July 1871

    This appears to be the original of the song also known as 'The Old Man Kangaroo'. This version is related to the version sung by Simon McDonald and offers some new verses. John Meredith collected a version quite different in text from Jack Lee where the character is called Bill Chippen

    Tailing a Kangaroo

    Attributed to Tom Tallfern


    Australasian Pastoral, Review - 1893

    Quoted as a chorus of a song doing the shearing shed rounds that year.

    Shearer's Ditty


    General Bush Lore

    PRICKLY PEAR

    Good for fodder for cattle, jams and jellies, ink, paint and a remedy for diabetes (boil leaves and drink juice). Also heard that needles are okay for gramophones.


    Vote for the Cook

    It was customary for the shearers to vote in a cook at the start of a season. This custom had its problems in as much as many were unwilling to accept the onerous task of attempting to feed and please a small army of men not for their quarrelsome ways. That said, the men also realised that they had to eat and tried to control their tempers. Chinese were favoured cooks since they spoke little, accepted general abuse and worked hard.

    The Hamilton Spectator
    Anon - 1865

    The Feeding Track

    The New Chum in the Country

    hardback Book - dated


    Navvies on a Spree
    June 30 1877 Australian Star

    Cheer up, Me lads, the navvies on the spree
    The Company's gone insolvent
    And the railways up a tree

    Advice from the Palmer State (Qld) state that hundreds of Chinese are in the last stages of destitution and those hundreds more are pressing on to the goldfields. The Wardens ask for additional police protection, owing to the threatening attitude of the Chinese outside the camps.

    The Emigrant's Manual
    EDINBURGH 1852

    In NSW, as in other Australian colonies, crown land is now sold at not less than 20s an acre.

    Pat Keighran "Memoirs of a Stockman"
    Harry Peck 1942

    James Tyson was born near Campbelltown,NSW, early in the 1800s. later in life had a reputations as a 'possum eater' (stingy). Drank billy tea all his life after his housekeeper served him a teapot and cosy � too hot so threw it out the window. And had "billy tea, tea as it should be, ever since"

    Until his death in 1898 he was known as the Cattle King.

    Used to refer to cattle as 'the 3 b's' � browns, blacks and bastards


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