The Desert Secret by Jules Raeside

There’s a shaker up the gully, There’s a paddock partly stripped And a shovel, pick and dishes lying round And a little heap of tailings Lying underneath the sieves And a heap of hopper stones upon the ground. But the hand that shook the shaker Nevermore will raise a ‘run’, O’er the ripples of the […]

Hasty’s Grave – raised to glory

Hasty’s Grave This grateful country cherishes the fine courageous band Who pioneered the wilderness, and founded our great land And so it is appropriate that the name of one so brave Be printed on our outback maps, marked simply ‘Hasty’s Grave’ And for those who wished to go there, and find the grave, perhaps Longitude […]

The Niagara Football Club – a verse

Kookynie Advocate and Northern Goldfields News 31 October 1903, page 2 The Niagara Football Club. (With apologies to “Banjo” Patterson.) On Saturday 17th October 1903, after Niagara became football premiers, there was a grand wind-up at the Niagara Hotel where over fifty people sat down to a great feast. To mark this event the following […]

After the Crushings Over –

After the Crushing’s Over by W Gregory. Our beers cut down, and our creditors frown, And it’s hard to raise a pot, But we’ve worked down hard on me and my pard, And found troubles quite a lot But they’ll soon be o’er, and we’ll pay our score And find ourselves in clover, Get off […]

The Men of the Rail – a verse

The Men of the Rail Through time and space in a furious race Spurning the midnight gales. The steel steel reels on flying wheels Over the shining rails; With a good cigar in the sleepy cars, Cosy and safe and warm, Ye pay small heed to the headlong speed And the men who breast the […]