• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

On the Road to Bangalow [poem by Jack Moses]

26 October 2015 · Leave a Comment

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

On the Road to Bangalow

I’ve left the stuffy city,
Where my nerves have had a jar,
Through the hustle and the bustle,
Till I dunno where I are.
I’m tramping in the open,
Just for freedom and a blow,
Where no coppers guard the corner,
On the road to Bangalow.

The Richmond hills are bonny,
And are worthy of a “boost,”
And we ought to crow our loudest,
Like the rooster on his roost.
I’ve seen them in the dawning,
And at sunset’s ruddy glow,
Where the kookaburra chuckles,
On the road to Bangalow.

There’s the ibis in the rushes,
And the blue cranes at the pool,
And the kiddies on their ponies,
All a-coming home from school.
The corn is getting riper,
While the pigs and poddies grow,
There’s money in the milkers,
On the road to Bangalow.

May the river go on flowing,
Just below the banker line,
And the grass all keep as green as wheat,
Away out Narromine!
Now I’m going to have a snifter,
With a cobber that I know,
And toast the lads and lassies,
On the road to Bangalow.

It’s not a Jimmy Woodser
’Cause I’ve got me cobber here,
And we’ll have another snifter
Just to toast the Pioneer.
We’ll drink this with our hats off,
’Cause we wouldn’t like to go
And forget the Digger’s father,
On the road to Bangalow.




Source:
Jack Moses, Beyond the City Gates: Australian Story & Verse, Sydney: Austral Publishing Co., 1923, pages 64-[64a] (the last stanza of the poem is on an unnumbered page, with a photograph, placed between pages 64 and 65)

Editor’s notes:
boost = promote, speak well of, to advance the cause of

Jimmy Woodser = someone who drinks alone, or a drink taken alone; the phrase dates from at least 1881, and was notably used in the 1892 poem “Jimmy Wood”, by Barcroft Boake, about a man who did not join in the custom of “shouting” (buying drinks for friends), and which ended with the line, “Who drinks alone — drinks toast to Jimmy Wood, sir”

poddies = plural of “poddy” (a poddy calf, a hand-fed calf; can also refer to an unbranded calf)

snifter = small drink of distilled liquor, such as bourbon, brandy, or whisky (may also refer to a vessel used to serve such drinks, a short-stemmed glass with a wide bowl and a narrower top)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Beyond the City Gates (Jack Moses 1923), Jack Moses (1861-1945) (author), poem, SourceCAPF, year1923

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • EC83 A loving greeting [postcard, 15 April 1913]
  • Market St., Sydney [postcard, 3 April 1913]
  • Kangaroo and Map stamps
  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in