Broken Down-digger on Kiandra's Plain (1914)
Kiandra, however, had its poet one Dick Thatcher, whose name is also famed for
other verses and songs besides those he composed on Kiandra, a verse of which runs
Just lately I've left dear old Sydney behind me,
The parks and the pubs, and th' girls sweet and bold ;
And now on Monaro's cold hills you will find me,
Sluicing the creeks there, and digging for gold ;
And I've worked on the 9-mile ; likewise on the river,
In Nimity's gullies, and Rocky Plain, too ;
In all those and others I've made my endeavor,
But seldom a nugget has gladdened my view ;
And I think of the girls, and the plays and the races,
And often I long for old Sydney again,
For I'm tired of the Snowy's gaunt hills and cold places
I'm a broken-down digger on Kiandra plain.
Notes
From the Penrith NSW Newspaper the Nepean Times Sat 22 Aug 1914 p. 7. A variant of the last two verses had been published in 1907 in Charles MacAlister's book "Old Pioneering Days In The Sunny South" p. 260.