An Old Bush Song (1860s)
Murrumbidgee Shearing Sheds of Late Sixties and the Seventies.

A squatter he stood at his station gate,
The sun was down, for 'twas getting late;
On a board near the fence was written clear
"Travellers all are welcome here."

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

Then he called to his super—Bandy Joe--
Said he, "That horrible board down throw;
Bold Morgan made me stick it up there,
But now he is shot, not a rap I care."

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

Just then his limbs to the gate did drag,
A traveller painfully humping his swag;
Says he—"To your station I straight did steer,
For swagmen, I'm told, are welcome here."

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

"Be off!" cried the squatter,"you scoundrel, go !
Morgan, the wretch, in the grave lies low;
Though he once made me dance on the table,
He's dead; to defy all tramps I'm able."

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

Then the traveller pulled from his blankets red,
A box of matches, and thus he said--
"Though poor Dan Morgan lies shot in his track,
He's left two mates, called Bell and Black!"

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

"You may see their brand at night, in the sky
As the red flame flies when the wind, is high;
And on as it travels their work you read--
A squatter lamenting his burnt-up feed."

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

The squatter cried out—in a terrible fright--
"Go up to the kitchen, my friend, to-night,
And ask for your, supper; although I spoke
So savage, you know it was only a joke!"

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

Now, all you squatters, attention pay,
And don't send swagmen hungry away;
Or else you may find, to your bitter grief,
Grass scarcer in summer than mutton or beef!

Ri tooral, I ooral, I additty.

Australian Newspaers carried literally of vernacular song and poems like this, material sent in by their local readers often form unknown composers.

--Composer Unknowwn.