[Editor: This song was published in Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition, 1932), edited by Banjo Paterson.]
Down by the Sydney Side
(Very old.) With nasal effect.
Over near a chock-and-log hut,
Down by the river-side,
A bronzed young bushman sat,
Telling his blushing bride
The time had come when he must rove
Down by the Sydney side.
Chorus
Down by the Sydney side, my dear,
Down by the Sydney side;
I must away in the morning, love,
Down by the Sydney side.
She kissed him yet once more again,
As she tightly clasped his hand,
And, though her heart it throbbed with pain,
She murmured a fond Good-bye!
For she knew that he was bound to ride
Down by the Sydney side.
Chorus: Down by, etc.
For the sheep they wanted shearing,
And of shearers there was few,
And ’twas time that he was steering
Across the Sunny New —
So I must away in the morning, love,
Down by the Sydney side.
Chorus: Down by, etc.
The best of friends must part, my dear,
Your faith in me abide;
Trust in my love, and have no fear,
For soon I’ll homeward ride;
Then for a year I will not steer
Down by the Sydney side.
Chorus
Down by the Sydney side, my dear,
Down by the Sydney side,
I’ll stay away in the morning, love,
From down the Sydney side.
Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), Old Bush Songs: Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days (8th edition), Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1932, pp. 49-50
Editor’s notes:
away = depart, go away, leave
bronzed = tanned (to have received a suntan, from having one’s skin tanned by the sun)
’twas = (archaic) a contraction of “it was”
[Editor: The word “Chorus” (which is used several times in this song) has been put into italics (Chorus) so as to distinguish it from the text of the song.]
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