Australia's on the Wallaby

DESCRIPTION: "Our fathers came to search for gold, The claim it proved a duffer. The syndicates and bankers' bosses made us all to suffer.... Australia's on the wallaby, Listen to the cooee." Most of the song is devoted to the animals the settler sees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Old Bush Recitations)
KEYWORDS: animal Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, pp. 199-200, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 70-71, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal-OldBushSongs-CentenaryEdition, pp. 286-287, "Australia's on the Wallaby" (1 text)
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, pp. 6-7, "Australia's On The Wallaby" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, WALLABB2*
Roud #24705
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Freedom on the Wallaby" (tune, theme)
NOTES [141 words]: Some feel that this is a parody, others a forerunner, of Henry Lawson's more political "Freedom on the Wallaby." Gwenda Beed Davey and Graham Seal, A Guide to Australian Folklore, Kangaroo Press, 2003, p. 25, are among those who think it a forerunner; they date it to the 1890s.
Whatever the relationship between the songs, an 1890s date seems probable; this was the era of the great shearers' strikes that Australian authorities regarded as armed insurrections (which we know inspired Lawson; see Richard Magoffin, Waltzing Matilda: The Story Behind the Legend, 1983; revised and illustrated edition, ABC Enterprises, 1987, pp. 43-44).
Meredith/Scott-AuthenticAustralianBushBallads, however, suggest that it is from the Great Depression. Which would mean it was collected almost immediately after being written. Possible, but I doubt it. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: MA199

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