The Dying Stockman [song, 1905]

[Editor: This song was published in The Old Bush Songs (1905), edited by Banjo Paterson. It was previously published (with variations) in The Queenslander, 4 August 1894, in which two different versions were provided, written by G. Doyle (using the phrase “stalwart young stockman”) and F. Harrison (using the phrase “strapping young stockman”). This song is part of Australia’s folk music tradition. Click here to see some videos of this song being played.]

The Dying Stockman

(Air: “The Old Stable Jacket.”)

A strapping young stockman lay dying,
His saddle supporting his head;
His two mates around him were crying,
As he rose on his pillow and said:

Chorus
“Wrap me up with my stockwhip and blanket,
And bury me deep down below,
Where the dingoes and crows can’t molest me,
In the shade where the coolibahs grow.

“Oh! had I the flight of the bronzewing,
Far o’er the plains would I fly,
Straight to the land of my childhood,
And there would I lay down and die.

Chorus: Wrap me up, &c.

“Then cut down a couple of saplings,
Place one at my head and my toe,
Carve on them cross, stockwhip, and saddle,
To show there’s a stockman below.

Chorus: Wrap me up, &c.

“Hark! there’s the wail of a dingo,
Watchful and weird — I must go,
For it tolls the death-knell of the stockman
From the gloom of the scrub down below.

Chorus: Wrap me up, &c.

“There’s tea in the battered old billy;
Place the pannikins out in a row,
And we’ll drink to the next merry meeting,
In the place where all good fellows go.

Chorus: Wrap me up, &c.

“And oft in the shades of the twilight,
When the soft winds are whispering low,
And the darkening• shadows are falling,
Sometimes think of the stockman below.”

Chorus: Wrap me up, &c.

Source:
A. B. Paterson (editor), The Old Bush Songs, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1905, pp. 66-67

Previously published (with variations) in:
The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld.), 4 August 1894, p. 212 (version submitted by G. Doyle) [another version of the same song was also published on the same page of that newspaper; the second version was submitted by F. Harrison]

Editor’s notes:
The authorship of the song has been attributed to Horace Flower, with the text first published in the Portland Mirror (Portland, Vic.) on 8 July 1885. Horace Flower and his brother, Charles Flower, were Queensland station owners who were songwriters in the 1880s and 1890s.

References:
Richard Walsh (editor), Traditional Australian Verse: The Essential Collection, Crows Nest (NSW): Allen & Unwin, p. 43
Dying Stockman, Australian Folk Songs (accessed 23 October 2012)