Country Fellows

When country fellows come to town,
    And meet to have a chat,
They bring the news from Camperdown,
    Birchip and Ballarat.
Wisely they talk of wheat and wool
    From Boort and Buninyong,
From Warragul and Warrnambool,
    From Junee and Geelong.

Ted tells them how the crops are now
    Well up round Bullarook,
And Fred describes the champion cow
    He bred at Quambatook.
“If rain comes soon ’twill be a boon,”
    Says Clive of Koo-wee-rup.
“Too right,” says Nick of Nar-nar-goon;
    “The grass wants fetchin’ up.”

And I, who have been country bred,
    And love the country still,
I listen wistfully to Ted
    And George and Joe and Bill.
I see again the peaceful scene,
    I hear them talk of paddocks green
At Yea and Grogan’s Dam,
Koroit, Kerang and Moulamein;
Then, dreaming of the might-have-been,
    I go home in a tram.