Travelling Down the Castlereagh
I'm travellin' down the Castlereagh, and I'm a station-hand
I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand
And I can ride a
rowdy colt, or swing an axe all day
But there's no demand for a station-hand
along the Castlereagh
So it's shift, boys, shift, for there isn't the
slightest doubt
That we've got to make a shift for the stations further out
With the pack-horse runnin' after, for he follows me like a dog
We must strike
across the country at the old jig-jog
This old black horse I'm riding,
if you notice what's his brand
He wears the crooked R, you see, none better
in the land
He takes a lot of beatin', and the other day we tried
For
a bit of a joke, with a racing bloke, for twenty pounds a side
It was
shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the slightest doubt
That I had to make
him shift, for the money was nearly out
But he cantered home a winner, with
the other one at the flog
He's a red-hot sort to pick up with his old jig-jog
I asked a cove for shearin' once along the Marthaguy
"We shear non-union
here," says he. "I call it scab," says I
I looked along the shearin' floor
before I turned to go
There were eight or ten non-union men a-shearin' in
a row
It was shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the slightest doubt
It was time to make a shift with the leprosy about
So I saddled up my
horses, and I whistled to my dog
And I left his scabby station at the old
jig-jog
I went to Illawarra, where my brother's got a farm
He has
to ask the landlord's leave before he lifts an arm
The landlord owns the countryside
- man, woman, dog and cat
They haven't the cheek to dare to speak without
they touch their hat
It was shift, boys, shift, for there wasn't the
slightest doubt
Their little landlord god and I would soon have fallen out
Was I to touch my hat to him? was I his bloomin' dog?
So I makes for up the
country at the old jig-jog
But it's time that I was movin', I've a mighty
way to go
Till I drink artesian water from a thousand feet below
Till
I meet the overlanders with the cattle comin' down
And I'll work a while
till I make a pile, then have a spree in town
So it's shift, boys, shift,
for there isn't the slightest doubt
We've got to make a shift for the stations
further out
The pack-horse runs behind us, for he follows like a dog
And
we cross a lot of country at the old jig-jog
Notes
First published under the title 'The Bushman's Song in the Bulletin in 1892. This poem of Banjo Paterson's has grown a number of tunes in its time in the bush. Meredith collected three tunes in NSW, and two tunes are given in the Queensland Centenary Pocket Songbook while in his Big Book of Australian Folk Song Ron Edwards gives another two. This tune is the one most commonly sung today, and was collected separately by Geoff Wills and John Manifold. Manifold got it from Mr Hines of Donald, Victoria, it is in his Penguin Australian Song Book
See also 'The Bushman's Song' in the Evening News 1870.