A drover is a person who moves a mob of animal stock overland via a road or track from one place to
another. In the old days (30 + or so years ago) huge herds of cattle and mobs of sheep would be
moved about in this manner. Thousands of miles would be covered - Australia is a big country.
This is quite a site to see and in a romantic context Aussie Outback at its best - the way we like
to remember it. Dogs barking - horses galloping after run-aways, whips cracking, men shouting,
swearing - sitting around the campfire at night spinning tall tales about a mob that got away.
And always always surrounded by the mystique of the Australian Outback - the smell of gum trees, the
laughing kookaburras. To understand you have to experience this.
We have no idea how they move the cattle and sheep now - probably in trains and semi-trailers.
We don't care either being vegetarians and living in the city. We prefer soya beans dosed with a
liberal dressing of round-up and we just lurve our genetically modified tucker - mad soy
- to the alternative.
Chorus
So pass the billy round boys,
Don't let the pint pot stand there
For tonight we'll drink the health
Of every Overlander.
Verse 1
There's a trade you all know well
And it's bringing cattle over,
On every track to the gulf and back
Men know the Queensland drover.
Verse 2
I come from the Northern plains
Where the girls and grass are scanty
Where the creeks run dry or ten feet high
And it's either drought or plenty.
Verse 3
There are men from every land
From Spain and France and Flanders
They're a well mixed pack, both white and black
The Queensland Overlanders.
Verse 4
When we've earned a spree in town
We live like pigs in clover
And the whole dam cheque pours down the neck
Of many a Queensland drover.
Verse 5
As I pass along the road,
The children raise my dander
Shouting "Mother dear, take in the clothes
Here comes an Overlander".
Verse 6
There's a girl in Sydney Town
Who said "Please don't leave me lonely"
I said "it's sad, but my old Prad
Has room for one man only.
Verse 7
But I'm bound for home once more
On a Prad that's quite a goer
I can find a job with a crawling mob
On the banks of the Maranoa.
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