Across the Western Plains

Traditional.




CHORUS:
It's all for me grog my jolly jolly grog
All for me beer and tobacco
Well I spent all my tin in a shanty drinking gin
Now across the Western plains I must wander

I'm stiff stoney broke and I've parted with me moke
And the sky is looking black as flaming thunder
And the shanty boss is too for I haven't got a sou
That's the way you're treated when you're down and under

I'm sick in the head for I haven't been to bed
Since first I touched this shanty with my plunder
I see centipedes and snakes, and I'm full of aches and shakes
So I"d better make a push out over yonder

Redemption brings reproof, so I sadly pad the hoof
All day I see the mirage of the trees
But it will all have to end, when I reach the river bend
And listen to the sighing of the breeze.

So hang that jolly grog, that hopeless shanty prog
All your beer that's loaded with tobacco
Grafting humour I am in and I'll stick the peg right in
And I'll settle down once more for to yakka


An Australian variation of Noggin Boots, or Across the Western Ocean. This version by cloudstreet, with Vicki Swan on double bass and Jonny Dyer on piano. From our 2010 album, The Circus of Desires.

Another from the Big Book of Australian Folk Songs.