A poem that invokes the legendary outback station, The Speewa.

Camels By Jimmy The ringer

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)

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 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 Since then "Shanks" has gone out of date, and the place of the famous pony, so far as the shearer is concerned at any rate, has been taken by the bike, both 'push' and motor.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 ñ "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 ñ
"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 ñ
"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 ñ
"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.'

The Hamilton Spectator
Anon - 1865

The Feeding Track

The New Chum in the Country hardback Book - dated