THE BUSHRANGER

 

There’s no use wondering how it all begun

A poor man’s life spent on the run

Tho’ said he borrowed a Squatter’s fancy horse

The Magistrate declared it was theft perforce

With hard labour they sent him down

To a road gang set up out of town

So when it was they set him free

He lived on the fringe of society

Unemployed after doing time

Surviving on a life of petty crime.

 

So the troopers were sent to take him down

Early in the morning set out of town

He heard in the distance the dingo’s howl

And his trusty red dog’s warning growl.

 

If you are wondering?

 

He saw only injustice and inhumanity

No longer a place he was meant to be

He took what he needed and he stole a gun

And he took to the hills in the setting Sun

Hidden away in a rocky lair

Living it rough in the wild out there

And so began his highway spree

For he stole their wallets and their dignity

He held up homesteads at the point of his gun

Until he was feared around by all and one

The troopers and a tracker had again left town

As they approached his camp he shot one down

Alerted by his red dog’s savage growl

And a distant dingo’s baying howl.

 

Now where could he go from here?

 

For he had reached the point of no return

And went on to pillage, loot and burn

Now he had become a most wanted man

And they vowed to search throughout the land

And when found there would be no mercy

A bullet or a rope from the nearest tree

At the last he wondered how it all went wrong

And he dreamt of these things to keep him strong

And he pined for a woman and a family

But there ain’t no future for a wretch like me

 

The troopers with the tracker, they had found his lair

And in a wild melee they shot him there

Too late came the warning of his red dog’s growl

Tho’ dying, he heard the haunting howl.

Written by
Rodd Sherwin
to music composed by
Jeremy Williams


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