Bits and Pieces Warren Fahey has been collecting, researching and performing Australian bush songs for many years. He has toured extensively both solo and with his pioneering group The Larrikins. He also plays English concertina. Warren has made several recordings and has published eleven books on various aspects of Australian folklore.

. . . from Warren Fahey's Collecting Swag


Here's a short parody poem I collected from an anonymous manuscript (circa 1890s) in the Mitchell library.

THE CONVERTED BULLOCK DRIVER

Bill the bullocky once had
A reputation really bad
For swearing at his team like mad
Salvation Army
Strange to say
Got hold of Bill and
Made him pray
When he returned he
Would not say
A naughty word 'till
One dark day
Up to the axle
Stuck his dray
In that soft Darling
River clay

   
Here's a ditty I wrote down in the early seventies. Apparently a bullocky in the Hill end district used to shout it from his five horse dray when he passed another bullocky. I'm not too sure what a 'tip and slasher' was but the 'ribbons' referred to his reins.

BILL MALONEY

Now look here Cobb and Co
And a lesson take from me
If you meet me on the road
Don't you make too free
For if you do you'll surely rue.
You think you'll do it fine
But I'm a tip and slasher
Of the Tambaroora Line.

I can hold them and steer them
And drive them to and fro
Ribbons well in hand, me boys,
I can make them go
With me feet well on the brakes, lads,
I'm bound to make them shine
For I'm a tip and a slasher
On the Tambaroora Line
 		Editor's Note:It is great to be able to add Warren's collected verses to the one that appeared in The Collection Box in Issue 4 of Simply Australia That issue had supporting notes about this song.

cobb and co coach




Another bullocky song remnant went

Come all you bullock drivers
And listen to my rhyme
And if ever you go a-carrying
Don't bind yourself in time
For I'm on the Sydney Road, my boys,
My fortune for to try
And I'm loaded for a storekeeper
In the town of Gundagai.

Suposedly written for an old Gundagai storekeeper Frederick Gosse. Mitchell Library.

 

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