Freedom on the Wallaby – Henry Lawson

Freedom on the Wallaby – Henry Lawson

Australia’s a big country

An’ Freedom’s humping bluey,

An’ Freedom’s on the wallaby Oh! don’t you hear ‘er cooey? She’s just begun to boomerang,

She’ll knock the tyrants silly,

She’s goin’ to light another fire

And boil another billy.

Our fathers toiled for bitter bread

While loafers thrived beside ’em,

But food to eat and clothes to wear,

Their native land denied ’em.

An’ so they left their native land

In spite of their devotion,

An’ so they came, or if they stole,

Were sent across the ocean.

Then Freedom couldn’t stand the glare O’ Royalty’s regalia,

She left the loafers where they were,

An’ came out to Australia.

But now across the mighty main

The chains have come ter bind her –

She little thought to see again

The wrongs she left behind her.

Our parents toil’d to make a home –

Hard grubbin ’twas an’ clearin’ –

They wasn’t crowded much with lords

When they was pioneering.

But now that we have made the land

A garden full of promise,

Old Greed must crook ‘is dirty hand

And come ter take it from us.

So we must fly a rebel flag,

As others did before us,

And we must sing a rebel song

And join in rebel chorus.

We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting

O’ those that they would throttle;

They needn’t say the fault is ours

If blood should stain the wattle!