A Thousand Miles Away

Charles Flower (?)




Hurrah for the old stock saddle, hurrah for the stockwhip too
Hurrah for the baldy pony boys to carry me westward ho
To carry me westward ho my boys that's where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away

Then give your horses rein across the open plain
We'll crack our whips like a thunderbolt nor care what some folks say
And a running we'll bring home them cattle at Narome
On the far Barcoo where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away

Knee deep in grass we've got to pass the truth I'm bound to tell
Where in three weeks them cattle get as fat as they can swell
As fat as they can swell my lads a thousand pound they weigh
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too a thousand mile away

So fit me up with a snaffle and a four or a five inch spur
And fourteen foot of greenhide whip to chop the flaming fur
I'll yard them flaming cattle in away that's safe to swear
I'll make them Queensland cattlemen sit back in the saddle and stare

Hurrah for the old stock saddle, hurrah for the stockwhip too
Hurrah for the baldy pony boys to carry me westward ho
To carry me westward ho my boys that's where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo where they eat Nardoo a thousand mile away



Reportedly written by Charles Flower (author of The Broken Down Squatter), a landholder on the Darling Downs. The Australian Folk Songs site notes its first publication as in the Queenslander in 1894.

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia that rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek.