A Thousand Mile Away
Hurrah for the old stock saddle, hurrah for the
stockwhip too
Hurrah for the baldy pony boys to carry me westward ho
To
carry me westward ho my boys that's where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo
where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away
Then give your horses rein
across the open plain
We'll crack our whips like a thunderbolt nor care what
some folks say
And a running we'll bring home them cattle at Narome
On
the far Barcoo where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away
Knee deep in
grass we've got to pass the truth I'm bound to tell
Where in three weeks them
cattle get as fat as they can swell
As fat as they can swell my lads a thousand
pound they weigh
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too a thousand mile away
So fit me up with a snaffle and a four or a five inch spur
And fourteen
foot of greenhide whip to chop the flaming fur
I'll yard them flaming cattle
in away that's safe to swear
I'll make them Queensland cattlemen sit back
in the saddle and stare
Hurrah for the old stock saddle, hurrah for the
stockwhip too
Hurrah for the baldy pony boys to carry me westward ho
To
carry me westward ho my boys that's where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo
where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away
Notes
First published
in the Queenslander in 1894 Stewart and Keesing note in their Old Bush Songs :
"According to our correspondent R.C.Lethbridge this song was written by Charles
Flower, who once owned a station, 'Roma Downs', in the Maranoa district".
The brothers Horace and Charles Flower were keen songwriters in the 1880's - 90's.
Charles Flower's manuscripts are in the Oxley Library, Brisbane.
Ron Edwards
suggests inThe Big Book of Australian Folk Song that Paterson probably got his
version from the Hurd collection (1894 - 1900).
More recently Phillip Butterss
discovered that the Hurd collection consists of cuttings taken from the Queenslander
and that many of the songs in Paterson's Old Bush Songs appear to come from that
source.
The version here is taken from the singing of A.L.Lloyd.