[Editor: This song was published in The Old Bush Songs (1905), edited by Banjo Paterson. Its existence had previously been mentioned in print in 1873.]
Sunny New South Wales
We often hear men boast about the land which gave them birth,
And each one thinks his native land the fairest spot on earth;
In beauty, riches, power, no land can his surpass;
To his, all other lands on earth cannot even hold a glass.
Now, if other people have their boasts, then, say, why should not we,
For we can drink our jovial toast and sing with three times three;
For there’s not a country in the world where all that’s fair prevails
As here it does in this our land, our sunny New South Wales.
Chorus
Then toast with me our happy land,
Where all that’s fair prevails,
Our colour’s blue and our hearts are true,
In sunny New South Wales.
Now let us take a passing glance at all that we possess.
That ours is such a wealthy land no stranger e’er would guess.
Why, we’ve land in store, indeed far more than ever we shall require,
And trees grow thick on every side in spite of axe and fire.
Our sheep and cattle millions count, our wool is classed A1;
In beef and mutton our fair land is not to be outdone.
Why, we’ve lately seen old England, who boasts her stock ne’er fails,
Has had to send for wholesome meat preserved in New South Wales.
Chorus: Then toast with me, &c.
In childhood California was to us a land of gold,
And people said its riches were so vast, immense, untold.
But time has proved that mineral wealth exists not there alone,
For New South Wales possesses gold in many, many a stone,
And when the gold is taken from out its quartzy veins
A heap of silver, copper, tin, as a residue remains.
In fact we are a mass of wealth in all our hills and dales.
There’s not a country half as rich as sunny New South Wales.
Chorus: Then toast with me, &c.
Our climate’s good, that all admit, our flowers are sweet and rare;
And scenes abound on every hand so marvellously fair.
Shame on the men who went away and of us wrote such lies.
Why, when Anthony Trollope came out here he nearly lost his eyes.
Our native girls are fair and good, their hearts are pure and true;
And to their colour stick like bricks, the bright Australian blue.
Some never loved a roving life, nor blest the ocean’s gales;
But they bless the breeze that blew them to a life in New South Wales.
Chorus: Then toast with me, &c.
Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 61-63
Editor’s notes:
This song was previously mentioned in:
1) “Theatre Royale” [advertisement], The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 31 March 1873, p. 10 [mentions the song, as written for a Miss Millner, by E. Lewis, Esq.]
2) “Literary notices”, The Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW) 23 September 1882, p. 607 [mentions the song, as written by Mr. E. Lewis Scott, and gives the text of the chorus]
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