Old Mate! In the gusty old weather,
When our hopes and our troubles were new,
In the years spent in wearing out leather,
I found you unselfish and true —
I have gathered these verses together
For the sake of our friendship and you.
You may think for awhile, and with reason,
Though still with a kindly regret,
That I've left it full late in the season
To prove I remember you yet;
But you'll never judge me by their treason
Who profit by friends — and forget.
I remember, Old Man, I remember —
The tracks that we followed are clear —
The jovial last nights of December,
The solemn first days of the year,
Long tramps through the clearings and timber,
Short partings on platform and pier.
I can still feel the spirit that bore us,
And often the old stars will shine —
I remember the last spree in chorus
For the sake of that other Lang Syne,
When the tracks lay divided before us,
Your path through the future and mine.
Through the frost-wind that cut like whip-lashes,
Through the ever-blind haze of the drought —
And in fancy at times by the flashes
Of light in the darkness of doubt —
I have followed the tent poles and ashes
Of camps that we moved further out.
You will find in these pages a trace of
That side of our past which was bright,
And recognise sometimes the face of
A friend who has dropped out of sight —
I send them along in the place of
The letters I promised to write.
To an Old Mate
Old Mate! In the gusty old weather,
In the Days When the World was Wide
The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow,
[Dec. — 1894]
Faces in the Street
They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone
[July — 1888]
The Roaring Days
The night too quickly passes
[Dec. — 1889]
'For'ard'
It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,
[Dec. — 1893]
The Drover's Sweetheart
An hour before the sun goes down
[June — 1891]
Out Back
The old year went, and the new returned,
in the withering weeks of drought,
[Sept. — 1893]
The Free-Selector's Daughter
I met her on the Lachlan Side —
[May — 1891]
'Sez You'
When the heavy sand is yielding backward from your blistered feet,
[Mar. — 1894]
Andy's Gone With Cattle
Our Andy's gone to battle now
[Oct. — 1888]
Jack Dunn of Nevertire
It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done,
[Aug. — 1892]
Trooper Campbell
One day old Trooper Campbell
[Apr. — 1891]
The Sliprails and the Spur
The colours of the setting sun
[July — 1899]
Past Carin'
Now up and down the siding brown
[Aug. — 1899]
The Glass on the Bar
Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,
[Apr. — 1890]
The Shanty on the Rise
When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West,
[Dec. — 1891]
The Vagabond
White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier
[Aug. — 1895]
Sweeney
It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down,
[Dec. — 1893]
Middleton's Rouseabout
Tall and freckled and sandy,
[Mar. — 1890]
The Ballad of the Drover
Across the stony ridges,
[Mar. — 1889]
Taking His Chance
They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise;
[June — 1892]
When the 'Army' Prays for Watty
When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star,
[May — 1893]
The Wreck of the 'Derry Castle'
Day of ending for beginnings!
[Dec. — 1887]
Ben Duggan
Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began,
[Dec. — 1891]
The Star of Australasia
We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation's slime;
The Great Grey Plain
Out West, where the stars are brightest,
[Sept. — 1893]
The Song of Old Joe Swallow
When I was up the country in the rough and early days,
[May — 1890]
Corny Bill
His old clay pipe stuck in his mouth,
[May — 1892]
Cherry-Tree Inn
The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star,
Up the Country
I am back from up the country — very sorry that I went —
[July — 1892]
Knocked Up
I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
[Aug. — 1893]
The Blue Mountains
Above the ashes straight and tall,
[Dec. — 1888]
The City Bushman
It was pleasant up the country, City Bushman, where you went,
[Aug. — 1892]
Eurunderee
There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,
[Aug. — 1891]
Mount Bukaroo
Only one old post is standing —
[Dec. — 1889]
The Fire at Ross's Farm
The squatter saw his pastures wide
[Apr. — 1891]
The Teams
A cloud of dust on the long white road,
[Dec. — 1889]
Cameron's Heart
The diggings were just in their glory when Alister Cameron came,
[July — 1891]
The Shame of Going Back
When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt,
[Oct. — 1891]
Since Then
I met Jack Ellis in town to-day —
[Nov. — 1895]
Peter Anderson and Co.
He had offices in Sydney, not so many years ago,
[Aug. — 1895]
When the Children Come Home
On a lonely selection far out in the West
[Dec. — 1890]
Dan, the Wreck
Tall, and stout, and solid-looking,
A Prouder Man Than You
If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine,
[June — 1892]
The Song and the Sigh
The creek went down with a broken song,
[Mar. — 1889]
The Cambaroora Star
So you're writing for a paper? Well, it's nothing very new
[Dec. — 1891]
After All
The brooding ghosts of Australian night
have gone from the bush and town;
Marshall's Mate
You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn —
[July — 1895]
The Poets of the Tomb
The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead,
[Oct. — 1892]
Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers
While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse
[Feb. — 1894]
The Ghost
Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide,
[Aug. — 1889]
All books are sourced from Project Gutenberg