• 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

The Weather the Evergreen Topic [poem by “Kookaburra”, 1 December 1916]

8 October 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by “Kookaburra”. Published in The Evelyn Observer, and Bourke East Record, 1 December 1916.]

The Weather the Evergreen Topic.

Mag: What do you think of the weather Kook? Will it be fine for Xmas?

Why, Mag, what’s up with you now? A little while ago you said things were better since the rain. Hope you’ve enough. I see in the daily paper the other day that we only require four inches more to beat the 1911 record. The Cockies would not care a continental if that record was never broken. Rain is a very good thing, but you can have too much of a good thing if the supply aint regulated properly. A glass of good beer is all right, but look at the mess people make of themselves by taking over doses, or using it between meals. We are certainly having a lot of rain this year, but next year may be dry, both in regard to water and beer, for there is a lot of talk about local option. I wonder if the Yan Yean is full yet; they used to publish the measurements some time ago. Perhaps the gauge is submerged or they can’t find a sapling long enough to test the depth. There is a great demand for wood since the coal strike. What the Cockies really want is a week’s north wind with a change to an easterly breeze for a few days, then some more north gales to dry up the wet. Tra, la, la.

Raining, Hailing, Hailing, Raining,
’Tis no use of us complaining,
For this everlasting raining looks as if its come to stay.
This lot started in September,
Has been going till December.
Will it ever cease its raining? you will hear the farmers say.

In the time of Noah’s flood,
When there must have been some mud,
We are told for forty days and nights they’d rain,
And the Cockies now do wonder,
As they hear the distant thunder,
Will we have just another blooming flood like that again?

For the hay crop now is rotten,
Some that’s dead can be forgotten,
For ’twould never pay to cut it with the scythe,
And a binder’s out of reason
On the ground this boggy season,
So the cow must pay the taxes and also the income tithe.

For the one redeeming clause
In this burst of nature’s laws,
Is the months and months the cows will milk on grasses.
So the farmer, bluff and hearty,
Cursed by the Labor Party,
Can find funds to join a union he won’t have to buy molasses.

Yet it gives the snaggers fits
When they have to wash the tits
Of the highbacks, whose appearance makes them look as though they’re tarred,
For the mud is o’er their udder,
And they’d almost need a rudder
For to regulate their passage on the journey to the yard.

— The Kookaburra.



Source:
The Evelyn Observer, and Bourke East Record (Kangaroo Ground, Vic.), 1 December 1916, p. 3

Editor’s notes:
cockie = a cocky, or “cockie”, is a farmer (the term was used to refer to poor bush farmers, from having land so poor that they were jokingly said to only be able to farm cockies, i.e. cockatoos, a type of bird; however, it was later used to refer to farmers in general)

continental = the phrase “could not give a continental”, or similar, means that the person speaking does not care at all about the matter at hand (said to have arisen from the collapse, in 1779-1781, of the currency of the US Continental Congress, when their paper dollars became almost worthless); there is also the phrase “couldn’t give a continental cuss”; similar expressions used different end words “couldn’t give a damn”, “couldn’t give a fig”, “couldn’t give a hoot”, etc.

local option = temperance movements in Australia gained the right for local electors to vote against the issuing of liquor licences; the control of alcohol at the local level was known as the “local option”, as distinct from state and national controls
See: 1) Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrel, Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Santa Barbara (California): ABC-CLIO, 2003
2) “Temperance movement in Australia”, Wikipedia (accessed 3 October 2014)
3) “Local option”, Wikipedia (accessed 3 October 2014)

o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

Yan Yean = Yan Yean Reservoir

[Editor: Corrected “the the wet” to “the wet”.]

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Kookaburra (dates?) (author), poem, SourceTrove, year1916

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

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]

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