DARGIN'S GREY John Low asks: Did Dargin's Grey tour inter-state? Or did the name enter the folk tradition and get passed on to other champion grey buckjumpers? Any further information about Dargin's Grey or, more specifically, about the poem would be most welcome. Does anyone know of any other poems/songs or, indeed, any photographs?

According to Bill Wannan, who confirmed the horse's status as a folk icon by including him in his Dictionary of Australian Folklore, Dargin's Grey was bred in the 1880s at Capertee near Lithgow. Purchased by Arthur Dargin in the early 1890s, he was exhibited at the Lithgow Show and soon acquired a reputation as a bit of an equine prodigy, testing the skills of many noted horsemen. A. G. Stephens wrote of him in The Bulletin in 1906, stating that “though some have tamed [him], none has ever broken his rebellious spirit.” Harry 'Breaker' Morant was one of the horsemen who managed to stay on board. Another, Jack Prendergast, said: “I believe that if the grey was lying down at his last gasp and anyone got on him, he'd get up and buck himself to death.”

Some time ago I was given a copy of the following poem. The source from which it was extracted (and any earlier provenance) is unknown but, interestingly, the location of the incident described in the poem is clearly North Queensland, a long way from Lithgow!

Note about the poem:
Jack Barron was a legendary coach driver who, for many years, drove the mail run from Clermont to Broadsound (now St. Lawrence) and later ca. 1919 the run from Clermont to Mt. Coolon. In the early 1920s he drove the Mt. Coolon to Collinsville coach and it was while working this run that he met his death at the old Bowen River Hotel when he was shot during a pub brawl.

- John Low