I'm only a back-blocks shearer, as easily can be seen I've shorn in almost every shed on the plains of the Riverine I've shorn in most of the famous sheds, I've seen big tallies done But somehow or other, I don't know why, I never became a gun
CHORUS: Hurrah, me boys, my shears are set, I feel both fit and well Tomorrow will find me at my pen when the gaffer rings the bell With Haydon's patent thumbguards fixed and both my blades pulled back Tomorrow I go with a sliding blow for a century or the sack
I've opened down the windpipe straight, I've opened behind the ear I've shorn in every possible style in which a man can shear I've studied all the cuts and drives of the famous men I've met But I've never succeeded in plastering up those three little figures yet
When the Boss walked past this morning, he stopped and he stared at me For I'd mastered Moran's Great Shoulder Cut, as he could plainly see But I've another surprise for him, that'll give his nerves a shock Tomorrow I'll show him I have mastered Pierce's Rang-tang Block
And if I succeed, as I hope to do, next year I intend to shear At the Wagga Demonstration, that's held there every year And there I'll lower the colours, the colours of Mitchell and Co Instead of Deeming, you will hear of Widgegoweera Joe
Also known the Backblocks Shearer. Another from Ron Edwards. Some online versions have W Tully as the author. Featured in Reedy River.
One version of this delightful song on Mudcat has the magnificent mondegreen "Tomorrow I'll go with a sardine blow..."
The illustration is from Picture Queensland, State Library of Queensland.
Ten miles down Reedy River, a pool of water lies
And all the year it mirrors the changes in the skies
And in that pool's broad bosom is room for all the stars
Its bed of sand has drifted, o'er countless rocky bars
Around the lower edges, there waves a bed of reeds
Where water rats are hidden and where the wild duck breeds
And grassy slopes rise gently to ridges long and low
Where groves of wattle flourish, and native bluebells grow
Beneath the granite ridges, the eye may just discern
Where Rocky Creek emerges from deep green banks of fern
And standing tall between them, the grassy sheoaks cool
The hard, blue-tinted waters, before they reach the pool
Ten miles down Reedy River one Sunday afternoon
I rode with Mary Campbell to that broad, bright lagoon
We left our horses grazing till shadows climbed the peak
And strolled beneath the sheoaks on the banks of Rocky Creek
Then home along the river, that night we rode a race
And the moonlight lent a glory to Mary Campbell's face
I pleaded for our future all through that moonlight ride
Until our weary horses drew closer side by side
Ten miles from Ryan's Crossing and five below the peak
I built a little homestead on the banks of Rocky Creek
I cleared the land and fenced it, and ploughed the rich, red loam
And my first crop was golden when I brought my Mary home
Now still down Reedy River, the grassy sheoaks sigh
The water-holes still mirror the pictures in the sky
The golden sand is drifting across the rocky bars
And over all for ever go sun and moon and stars
But of the hut I builded, there are no traces now
And many rains have levelled the furrows of my plough
The glad, bright days have vanished, for sombre branches wave
Their wattle blossom golden above my Mary's grave
Australia's first folk musical Reedy River premiered in Melbourne in 1953. The libretto, based on an historical event, the 1891 shearer's strike, was written by Dick Diamond with songs chosen by John Gray. Two new songs were written for the musical by Diamond with music by Miles Maxwell. Reedy River was inspired by the Australian traditional and folk music being collected by John Meredith, George Farwell, Vance Palmer, Margaret Sutherland and John Gray. Folk songs featured in the musical included the Ballad of '91, Eumeralla Shore and a musical version of the Henry Lawson poem Reedy River. A number of the folk songs performed were collected by John Meredith and the music to the poem Reedy River was composed by sixteen-year-old Chris Kempster, both members of Australia's first bush band, The Bushwhackers.
Reedy River, with music played by a small orchestra conducted by Miles Maxwell, was first produced by the Melbourne New Theatre on 11 March 1953, directed by John Gray. On the 5 December 1953 the musical was revived by the Sydney New Theatre with the orchestra replaced by The Bushwhackers. The band played improvised bush instruments like the bush bass (or tea-chest bass) and the lagerphone (or Murrumbidgee River Rattler) and folk instruments such as the button or "bush" accordion, mouth organ and the tin whistle, introducing these instruments to a wide audience for the first time.
The musical became enormously popular due to its uniquely Australian content, its then novel use of Australian traditional and folk songs and its affirmation of Australian bush culture and tradition. The Sydney season and the subsequent tour of NSW was seen by over 100 000 people and launched The Bushwhackers as a band. The production's popularity is regarded as the catalyst for the Australian folk music revival of the 1950s and the inspiration for generations of folklorists and folklore collectors.
