Jindalee [poem by Jack Moses]

[Editor: This is a poem from Beyond the City Gates: Australian Story & Verse (1923) by Jack Moses.]

Jindalee

I’m going home to Jindalee,
The sweetest spot on earth to me;
The moon and stars shine brighter there,
Than I have seen them anywhere.

The fleecy clouds float into view,
And roll around the ranges blue,
Then sail away, so soft and free,
Across the lands of Jindalee.

The storms oft set the streams a-go;
The stock and crops come on and grow;
The sun and rain and flower and bee
All seem to favor Jindalee.

My neddy’s tugging at the rein;
He knows he’s going back again,
We’ve been droving, don’t you see,
Far, far away from Jindalee —

’Way where the cattle rush at night,
As mad as hornets in their fright;
Oh, I’ll be glad, and so will he,
To see the kids at Jindalee.

On his broad back they’ll quickly lob
(They use a stump there for that job).
Tho’ once it was a big gum tree —
It’s built our house in Jindalee.

My wife is standing at the gate —
No man could have a better mate;
A smile, a kiss, hot scones for tea,
And I am home in Jindalee.

Source:
Jack Moses, Beyond the City Gates: Australian Story & Verse, Sydney: Austral Publishing Co., 1923, pages 96 (the related photo is on an unnumbered page between pages 96 and 97)

Previously published in:
Cootamundra Herald (Cootamundra, NSW), 10 October 1921, p. 4

Editor’s notes:
neddy = slang term for a horse (e.g. to have “a flutter on the neddies” is to have a bet on a horse race)

Vernacular spelling in the original text:
’way (away)