[Editor: This song was published in The Old Bush Songs (1905), edited by Banjo Paterson. It was previously published (with minor variations) in The Perth Gazette, and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 3 May 1850.]
The Beautiful Land of Australia
All you on emigration bent,
With home and England discontent,
Come, listen to my sad lament,
All about the bush of Australia.
I once possessed a thousand pounds,
Thinks I — how very grand it sounds
For a man to he farming his own grounds
In the beautiful land of Australia.
Chorus
Illawarra, Mittagong,
Parramatta, Wollongong.
If you wish to become an ourang-outang,
Then go to the bush of Australia.
Upon the voyage the ship was lost.
In wretched plight I reached the coast,
And was very nigh being made a roast,
By the savages of Australia.
And in the bush I lighted on
A fierce bushranger with his gun,
Who borrowed my garments, every one,
For himself in the bush of Australia.
Chorus
Illawarra, Mittagong,
Parramatta, Wollongong.
If you wish to become an ourang-outang,
Then go to the bush of Australia.
Sydney town I reached at last,
And now, thinks I, all danger’s past,
And I shall make my fortune fast
In this promising land of Australia.
I quickly went with cash in hand,
Upon the map I chose my land.
When I got there ’twas barren sand
In the beautiful land of Australia.
Chorus
Illawarra, Mittagong,
Parramatta, Wollongong.
If you wish to become an ourang-outang,
Then go to the bush of Australia.
Of sheep I got a famous lot.
Some died of hunger, some of rot,
For the devil a drop of rain they got
In this flourishing land of Australia.
My convict men were always drunk,
They kept me in a constant funk.
Says I to myself, as to bed I slunk,
How I wish I was out of Australia!
Chorus
Booligal, Gobarralong,
Emu Flat and Jugiong.
If you wish to become an ourang-outang,
Then go to the bush of Australia.
Of ills enough I’ve had, you’ll own.
And then at last, my woes to crown,
One night my log house was blown down
That settled us all in Australia.
And now of home and all bereft,
The horrid spot I quickly left,
Making it over by deed of gift
To the savages of Australia.
Chorus
Booligal, Gobarralong,
Emu Flat and Jugiong.
If you wish to become an ourang-outang,
Then go to the bush of Australia.
I gladly worked my passage home,
And now to England back I’ve come,
Determined never more to roam,
At least, to the bush of Australia.
And stones upon the road I’ll break,
And earn my seven bob a week,
Which is surely better than the freak
Of settling down in Australia.
Chorus
Currabubula, Bogolong,
Ulladulla, Gerringong.
If you wouldn’t become an ourang-outang,
Don’t go to the bush of Australia.
Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 20-23
Previously published (with minor variations) in:
The Perth Gazette, and Independent Journal of Politics and News (Perth, WA), 3 May 1850, p. 4 [which prefaced the song with the sentence “The following humorous description of the trials and vexations of a settler in New South Wales, was privately circulated in Sydney a few years since”]
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