spacer
spacer
The Dying Stockman - Australian folk song about the bush and the very harsh life our heroic early settlers had to endure.  The  dry inland areas of Australia have many large cattle and sheep stations.
Kanyaka Station Homestead Kanyaka sheep station in the Flinders Ranges where misguided settlers tragically tried and failed  to conquer Australia's harsh conditions.
spacer

Home and Main Index button
Information and E-Mail button
Table of Contents button
Aussie Gazette button
spacer
Gallery One Australia button
Gallery Two Australia button
Gallery Three Australia button
Black and White Gallery button
Flowers World Gallery button
Still Life Gallery button
Young Artists button
spacer
Musical symbol - quaverAustralian Songs button
Musical symbol - quaverAussie National Anthem button
Musical symbol - quaverWorld Anthems button
Musical symbol - quaverPoetry - Music - Chopin button
spacer
Poets Australia button
spacer

Kangaroo - clip artwww.imagesaustrlia.com
   

spacer
The Dying Stockman
spacer

[click here for the music]

Refrain
sung after each verse

Wrap me up with my stock-whip and blanket,
And bury me deep down below,
Where the dingoes and crows can't molest me,
In the shade where the coolibahs grow.

(one)

A strapping young stock-man lay dying,
His saddle supporting his head,
His two mates around him were crying
As he rose on his saddle and said.

(two)

 Oh had I the flight of the bronze-wing,
Far over the plains would I fly,
Straight to the land of my child-hood
And there I would lay down and die.

(three)

Then cut down a couple of saplings,
Place one at my head and my toe,
Carve on them, cross stock-whip and saddle,
To show there's a stock-man below.

(four)

Hark there is the wail of a dingo,
Watchful and weird I must go,
For it tolls the death knell of the stock-man
From the gloom of the scrub down below

(five)

There's tea in the battered old billy
Place the paninkins out in a row,
And we'll drink to the next merry meeting,
In the place where all good-fellows go.

(six)

And oft in the shades of the twilight,
When the soft winds are whispering low,
And the darkening shadows are falling,
Sometimes think of the stockman below
spacer

Horace Flower

spacer