Clancys Reply In 1897, years after he gave up droving, Thomas Gerald Clancy, better known as Clancy of the Overflow, penned this verse Neath the star-spangled domeOf my Austral home,When watching by the camp fires ruddy glow,Oft in the flickering blazeIs presented to my gazeThe sun-drenched kindly facesOf the men of Overflow.Now, though years have passed foreverSince I used, with best endeavourClip the fleeces of the jumbucksDown the Lachlan years ago,Still in memory linger tracesOf many cheerful faces,And the well-remembered visageOf the Bulletins Banjo.Tired of life upon the stations,With their wretched, scanty rations,I took a sudden notionThat a droving I would go;Then a roving fancy took me,Which has never since forsook me,And decided me to travel,And leave the Overflow.So with maiden ewes from Tubbo,I passed en route to Dubbo,And across the Lignum countrywhere the Barwon waters flow;Thence onward oer the Narran,By scrubby belts of Yarran,To where the landscape changesAnd the cotton bushes grow.And my path Ive often wendedOver drought-scourged plains extended,where phantom lakes and forestsForever come and go;And the stock in hundreds dying,Along the road are lying,To count among the pleasuresThat townsfolk never know.Over arid plains extendedMy route has often tended,Droving cattle to the Darling,Or along the Warrego;Oft with nightly rest impeded,when the cattle had stampeded,Save I sworn that droving pleasuresFor the future Id forego.So of drinking liquid mireI eventually did tire,And gave droving up foreverAs a life that was too slow.Now, gold digging, in a measure,Affords much greater pleasureTo your obedient servant,Clancy of the Overflow. Wallis and Matilda
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 04:19:25 +0000
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