The Wild Walcha Boy (1906)
When I was a boy I wos happy and free,And I lived with my parents who dearly loved me,
But one day I foolishly wandered from home
Far over the country to ramble and roam. It was a roving wild shearer that led me astray,
From the place I was born he decoyed me away.
But I gloried in fast life, and my heart beat with joy
To be called a young shearer, or the Wild Walcha Boy. I entered the Union, and I joined in the strike,
I have crossed the Flat Country on horse and on bike,
I have played with the flash mob at two up and nap
And I always was willing to join in a rap. I have shorn at most sheds out back on the plains,
I've been drummer and ringer, and played at most games
That the shearers indulge in before the roll call,
And at Angledool danced at the shearers' last balL Long years have now taught me 'twas folly to roam,
And I wish I was back in my old happy home.
But while I am here on the far Castlereagh
I have heard the roll call from my home far away. It was only this morning from the paper I read,
That my father and mother are both lying dead.
May their souls rest in peace, now their troubles are o'er.
But the Wild Walcha Boy they will see him no more. H. HEALEY, Limbri. Notes From the NSW Newspaper the Walcha Witness and Vernon County Record 28 July 1906 p. 6.