A Pioneer's Song (1901)
Aloft I've reefed the topsails
When on the stormy main,
And I've steered on the farm the reaper,
To gather the golden grain.
I've toiled in the thirty-fathom level
At the Burra Burra mine ;
And on the sunny slopes of Clarendon
I've pruned the fruitful vine.
I've travelled the north country
When it was parched with drought,
And been swamped in the raging waters
That break at the Murray mouth.
My dray has been bogged in King William street
In a deep and dangerous hole ;
La'ned a bullock, strained the axle,
And broke short off the pole.
This was in early days of Adelaide,
In Eighteen Forty-One ;
When there was no pavement on the footpath
And but little roadwork done.
--Gawler Pioneer, 1840.
Notes
From the South Australian Newspaper the Bunyip Friday 1 February 1901 p. 3.