Henry Lawson is one of Australia's greatest poets - some would argue that he is the greatest. Lawson expressed the values which became embedded in the Australian ethos: mateship, a fair go, being fair dinkum and being treated fairly. As we come into the 21st century, these values are under threat from individualism, corporate and individual greed, and trying to keep up with the international Joneses. So many Australians don't seem to know, let alone care, of their nation's egalitarian values and the desire to carve out in this southern land a way of life away from the prejudice, social values, and inequalities of the nations of the north.
Freedom on the Wallaby
Henry Lawson
1891
Henry Lawson
1891
Australia's a big country
An' Freedom's humping bluey,
An' Freedom's on the wallaby
Oh! don't you hear 'er cooey?
She's just begun to boomerang,
She'll knock the tyrants silly,
She's goin' to light another fire
And boil another billy.
Our fathers toiled for bitter bread
While loafers thrived beside 'em,
But food to eat and clothes to wear,
Their native land denied 'em.
An' so they left their native land
In spite of their devotion,
An' so they came, or if they stole,
Were sent across the ocean.
Then Freedom couldn't stand the glare
O' Royalty's regalia,
She left the loafers where they were,
An' came out to Australia.
But now across the mighty main
The chains have come ter bind her –
She little thought to see again
The wrongs she left behind her.
Our parents toil'd to make a home –
Hard grubbin 'twas an' clearin' –
They wasn't crowded much with lords
When they was pioneering.
But now that we have made the land
A garden full of promise,
Old Greed must crook 'is dirty hand
And come ter take it from us.
So we must fly a rebel flag,
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.
We'll make the tyrants feel the sting
O' those that they would throttle;
They needn't say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle
