Squatting in Queensland

Grandpa Pencil's
Australian colonial verse and song

Squatting in
Queensland
by Remos

From 'The Queenslander's New Colonial Fire Song Book' Sydney, 1865

Squatting up in Queensland, is a great mistake I guess;
If you ask if I'm a squatter, I can truly answer yes,
For altho' I'm nearly squashed, I hold my station still,
And if another gets it - he will have a bitter pill.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

Three years ago I landed here, a healthy active fellow,
But now my bones all ache, and my skin is nearly yellow;
There is no rest by night or day, from the evils here that plague you -
Mosquitoes, snakes, sandflies, and the cursed fever and argue.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

After endless days of toil, and sleepless nights of pain;
'Tis hard in one's old age, to begin the world again,
With hopes and prospects blasted, like a foundering wreck at sea,
But that must be our fate up here - is very plain to me.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

Were it with me only, like a ship's sprung a leak,
Then for squatters generally, I would have no right to speak;
But we are all in equal danger, of playing a losing game,
Both cattle men, and sheep up here, I fear will fare the same.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

Gold is the only anchor, that can save a ship from shore,
If we don't get gold here, our life will be a bore,
With stations we can't sell, for half the price they cost,
We'll be like a dirty ferry boat, from bank to bank be cross'd.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

So Northern men and brother squatters, turn up a gold field quick,
For the state of things in general, will soon make me cut my stick;
If things don't mend up here, what a fix we will be in,We'll be like Rockhampton council men - very hard up for tin.

Oh! dear oh! - Now isn't it a go,
After frizzling up in Queensland, like sinners down below.

Remos?

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