The Pullyerleg Brigade

The ‘leg-pulling’ proclivities of Australian soldiers are regarded as responsible for some of the wild charges of atrocities which have been made against them by the English author, Robert Graves, and hotly denied by Australian military leaders.

Oh, them terrible, terrible things we done,
An’ the ‘orrible tales we told
(The Digger drawled), an’ the deeds recalled,
Would make your blood run cold.
They would freeze your marrer an’ raise your ‘air;
An’ the more that you rose an’ froze,
Well, the more you ‘eard, an’ the more absurd,
For the whole of the army knows—

We come from the land, of Pullyerleg,
Where the trees grow chewin’ gum,
An’ the kids we wean on karoseen,
Raw meat, boilin’ rum;
Where the native bear breathes red ‘ot air,
An’ the bullocks nest in trees—
In the awful kind of Pullyerleg,
The savage land of Pullyerleg,
Far, far across the seas.

Oh, that ‘orrible, ‘e-man Digger bloke,
With ‘is ‘at cocked on one side,
The tales ‘e told with ‘is swagger bold
Would blister any ‘ide.
The things ‘e done to the ‘elpless ‘Un,
And loved to dwell upon,
Would turn you white and cold with flight,
Till you tumbled later on—

He come from the land of Pullyerleg,
Where the rabbits go on strike,
And they said “Ba goom! Is that right, choom?
Why Oi never ‘eard the like!
An’ you kept ‘is ears for sovvinirs
To take back with you? Wot
To give to your girl in Pullerleg—
That terrible land of Pullyerleg?
Ba goom! But that’s red ‘ot!”

“Den”
Herald, 15 January 1930, p6