Springtime Brings on the Shearing
Oh the springtime it brings on the shearing
And it's then you will see them in droves
To the west country stations all steering
A seeking a job off the coves
Chorus
With a ragged old swag on my shoulder
And a billy quart pot in my hand
I tell you we'll astonish the new chums
To see how we travel the land
You may talk of your mighty exploring
Of Landsborough McKinley and King
But I feel I should only be boring
On such frivolous subjects to sing
For discovering mountains and rivers
There's one for a gallon I'd back
Who'd beat all your Stuart's to shivers
It's the men on the Wallaby Track
From Billabone Murray and Loddon
To the far Tartiara and back
The hills and the plains are well trodden
By the men on the Wallaby Track
And after the shearing is over
And the wool season's all at an end
It is then that you will see those flash shearers
Making johnny cakes round in the bend
Notes
Printed in Stewart and Keesing Old Bush Songs . This song seems to have been derived from a poem called 'The Wallaby Track', by E. J. Overbury, which was first published in 1865 in a collection of Overbury's verses called Bush Songs .