Brisbane Ladies
(Saul Mendelsohn)


Farewell and adieu to you, Brisbane ladies
Farewell and adieu, you maids of Toowong
We've sold all our cattle and we have to get a movin'
But we hope we shall see you again before long.

cho: We'll rant and we'll roar like true Queensland drovers
We'll rant and we'll roar as onward we push
Until we return to the Augathella station
Oh, it's flamin' dry goin' through the old Queensland bush.

The maids of Toomancie they look so entrancing
Like bawling young heifers they're out for their fun
With the waltz and the polka and all kinds of dancing
To the rackety old banjo of Henry Gunn.

Then on to Nanango, that hard-bitten township
Where the out-of-work station-hands sit in the dust
Where the shearers get shorn by old Tim, the contractor
Oh, I wouldn't go near there, but I flaming well must!

Then fill up your glasses, and drink to the lasses
We'll drink this town dry, then farewell to them all
And when we've got back to the Augathella Station
We hope you'll come by there and pay us a call.

Written by Saul Mendelsohn, printed as a broadside
repr. Queensland Boomerang, 1891. In most Australian
collections; cf. "Spanish Ladies"

Tune: Spanish Ladies (minor version)
@Australia
sung by Hoyt Axton

1998 McGuinn Music - Roger McGuinn