The Boundary Rider (1945)
No kingly robes ere mine to wear,No foes have I to fear.
No carping tongue nor searching care
Can ever reach me here.
No ribbon'd stars or velvet bands,
No crown of gleaming gold.
No humble footman humbly stands
My stirrup bare to hold. Beside me stands my trusty Bay
With bridle trading free,
And fences stretching far away
Are calling now to me :
Keep all your leagues of trackless sea,
Your foreign lands afar,
The world is wide enough for me
Where boundary fences are. Let music of the sweetest strains
The halls of cities fill,
The sound of bells and hobble chains
To me is sweeter still.
When daylight fades and shadows hide
The ranges faint and low,
All lonely thoughts I cast aside
And set my pipe aglow. Oh ! give me acres wide and green,
And freedom of the West-
a little hut kept neat and clean,
And you can keep the rest.
Where cloud-fields change and sunsets hue,
And plains are wide and free,
Where stars are bright and skies are blue
Tis good enough for me. Hughenden. BERT DUNNE. Notes From the Queensland Newspaper The Townsville Daily Bulletin 28 Nov 1945 p. 6.