The following handwritten account tells of Australian tramps from an American perspective of the late 1930s.
1880s
Damn Coolgardie, damn the track
Damn it there and damn it back
Damn the country, damn the weather
Damn the goldfields altogether
The only message from the dead
That ever came distinctly through
Was send my overcoat to hell
It came to Bourke in 92
Jingle for first issue.
The Bulletin, the Bulletin,
The journalistic javelin
The paper all the humour’s in
The paper to inspire and grin
The Bulletin, the Bulletin
Whalers, damper, swag and nosebag, Johnny cakes and billy tea
Murrumburrah, meremendicoowoke, youlabudgeree
Cattle duffers. Bold bushrangers diggers, drovers, bush race courses,
And on all the other pages horses, horses, horses, horses
Thought to have been written by Phillip ‘Remos’ Somer a member of Cunningham’s exploration party
Good for fodder for cattle, jams and jellies, ink, paint and a remedy for diabetes (boil leaves and drink juice). Also heard that needles are okay for gramophones.
June 30 1877 Australian Star
Cheer up, Me lads, the navvies on the spree
The Company’s gone insolvent
And the railways up a tree
Advice from the Palmer State (Qld) state that hundreds of Chinese are in the last stages of destitution and those hundreds more are pressing on to the goldfields. The Wardens ask for additional police protection, owing to the threatening attitude of the Chinese outside the camps.
EDINBURGH 1852
In NSW, as in other Australian colonies, crown land is now sold at not less than 20s an acre.
Harry Peck 1942
James Tyson was born near Campbelltown,NSW, early in the 1800s. later in life had a reputations as a ‘possum eater’ (stingy). Drank billy tea all his life after his housekeeper served him a teapot and cosy ñ too hot so threw it out the window. And had “billy tea, tea as it should be, ever since”
Until his death in 1898 he was known as the Cattle King.
Used to refer to cattle as ‘the 3 b’s’ – browns, blacks and bastards
BUSH LIFE
DROVING:
SHEARING
STATION LIFE:
BULLOCK DRIVING:
TIMBER GETTING: