A Thousand Miles Away

A poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

(Air: “Ten Thousand Miles Away.”)


Hurrah for the Roma railway! Hurrah for Cobb and Co.,
And oh! for a good fat horse or two to carry me Westward Ho—
To carry me Westward Ho! my boys, that’s where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.

Chorus

Then give your horses rein across the open plain,
We’ll ship our meat both sound and sweet, nor care what some folks say;
And frozen we’ll send home the cattle that now roam
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too, a thousand miles away.

Knee-deep in grass we’ve got to pass—for the truth I’m bound to tell—
Where in three weeks the cattle get as fat as they can swell—

As fat as they can swell, my boys; a thousand pounds they weigh,
On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.

Chorus: Then give your horses rein, &c.

No Yankee hide e’er grew outside such beef as we can freeze;
No Yankee pastures make such steers as we send o’er the seas—
As we send o’er the seas, my boys, a thousand pounds they weigh—
From the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.

Chorus: Then give your horses rein, &c.