Carroty Kate

Words: Unknown
Tune: Dave Moran



It was at a back-track shanty where I was on the spree,
The ladies they were scanty, but the barmaid did for me.
Her hair was the colour of ginger, she could reckon you up on a slate,
My colonial, she was a swinger, and they called her Carroty Kate.

Chorus:
She was very fond of riding, as you can plainly see
For one fine day she rode away, with a chap from the Native Bee.

Now the shearing it was finished, and the rowdies rolling in,
My cheque had much diminished for Kate had got my tin.
I told her I'd burst like a bubble, if I didn't get her for a mate,
But, oh she saved me the trouble, did deceitful Carroty Kate.

I had bought her a pigskin saddle, a pretty piebald hack,
I "pitched" my sheep and cattle, for the station was just Outback:
When I asked her for to marry, I saw her hesitate,
For a fellow they call Flash Harry had been spooning with Carroty Kate.

Now he kept pitching nuggets and I kept pitching stock,
He pitched the biggest druggets and to my pitching he put a stop:
Now whether 'twas the gold or the riches that down the gully he'd rake
Or whether it was his boots or breeches-but he'd "pinched" my Carroty Kate.


An Australian variant of English broadside ballad, The Calico Printer's Clerk, that song being set to this tune by Dave Moran of The Halliard and recorded by that group in 1968. Available on their 2005 release, Broadside Songs.

Another from the seemingly endless resource that is Mudcat (and Bob Bolton, of course!).