[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.]
The Girls of Tasmania
The Irishman loves his fair Colleen,
No doubt she is witty and pretty,
But in Ireland I have never been,
So can’t judge of his taste for sweet Kitty.
Chorus
The girls of Tasmania they are not shy;
They’ll walk with a man if he’s only a boy;
But for all the nice girls that I ever did see,
The girls of Tasmania are just the girls for me.
And Scotty thinks with his fair lassie
No other lassies can compare —
He can have them all, so far as I see,
The girls of Tasmania will always do me.
Chorus: The girls of, etc.
The Englishman boasts of his beauties at home;
The Frenchy and Dutchy too treasures have got,
If they all think so, why do they roam?
Mine’s a girl of Tasmania — let the rest go to pot.
Chorus: The girls of, etc.
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. 53-54
Editor’s notes:
Colleen = girl, young woman (from the Irish “cailín”)
Dutchy = a Dutchman
Frenchy = a Frenchman
go to pot = to go to ruin; to decline, deteriorate, fail, spoil, or worsen (especially due to neglect, because of lack of care or effort); to go awry
lassie = (Scottish) lass (girl, young woman); a sweetheart
Scotty = a Scotsman
[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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