Broken-Down Squatter, The

DESCRIPTION: "For the banks are all broken they say, And the merchants are all up a tree, When the bigwigs are brought to the bankruptcy court, what chance for a squatter like me?" Tales of a (bankrupt and now wandering) squatter's life in depression times
AUTHOR: Charles Flower
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Paterson, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: horse poverty Australia hardtimes
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 42-43, 236-237, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 12-13, "The Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong, pp. 147-149, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manifold-PenguinAustralianSongbook, pp. 154-155, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-PintPotAndBilly, pp. 60-61, "Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 115-118, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text)
Scott-ACollectorsNotebook-31TraditionalSongs, p. 16, "The Broken Down Squatter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads, pp. 43-44, "The Broken-Down Squatter" (1 text)
DT, BRKSQUAT*
Roud #8392
NOTES [229 words]: Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia date this to a period of economic downturn between 1891 and 1893 (which to me hints that the squatter may have been the victim of the shearer's strike of 1891). The Penguin Book of Australian Folksongs dates it to the 1880s. Patterson/Fahey/Seal says that author Flower was driven off his property by the economic troubles of the 1880s, so perhaps that is the most likely date. Anderson-StoryOfAustralianFolksong also offers a date in the 1880s although it does not list an author. Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads says specifically 1893.
The notes in Stewart/Keesing-FavoriteAustralianBallads suggest that this dates from the period before the squatters had legal rights to their land, meaning they had no recourse in times of trouble. I'm not sure this follows; in any case, they do not date the song or show awareness of the author.
According to Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 420, a "slip-rail" is "part of a fence so fitted that it can be removed so as to serve as a gate. Used also for the gateway thus formed. Generally used in the plural." His first cited instance is from 1870. Thus to "leave the slip-railings down" is to leave the paddock open because there is nothing left for it to hold in. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA042

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