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> Martyn Wyndham-Read > Songs > The Banks of the Condamine

(On) The Banks of the Condamine

[ Roud 8224 ; trad.]

This song was first published as The Banks of the Riverine in The Queenslander in 1894. Folklorist Dr Edgar Waters writes (Australian Tradition, October 1966):

The Banks of the Condamine seems to have been one of the most widely distributed bush songs. In recent years it has been reported from singers in northern Victoria and the Northern Territory, and a number of different versions have been recorded in New South Wales and in Queensland. Sometimes the man is going off to a horse-breaking camp rather than a shearing shed. In Victoria, and at least in southern New South Wales, it seems to have been known as The Banks of the Riverine, and perhaps this was the original form. The words of The Banks of the Condamine were made over from Banks of the Nile, a British ballad of the beginning of the nineteenth century.

A.L. Lloyd sang this song in the 1950's on his 78rpm record Bold Jack Donahue / The Banks of the Condamine, on the Riverside LP Australian Bush Songs, and on the Wattle album The Banks of the Condamine and Other Bush Songs. Like all tracks of this album, the latter recording was reissued in 1960 on the Topic LP Outback Ballads. Trevor Lucas first recorded it on his 1966 album Overlander and again sang it unaccompanied in 1971 on A.L.Lloyd's album The Great Australian Legend, but with quite different verses. A.L. Lloyd wrote on the latter LP's backside:

Throughout the fifty years from 1820 to 1870, broadside printers in London, Newcastle, Dublin and elsewhere did a good trade with the stall-ballad called Banks of the Nile, a song from the Napoleonic Wars. The song spread to America and Australia, and in Queensland it became parodied as The Banks of the Condamine, with the hero no longer a soldier but a horsebreaker or a shearer. It has turned up in sundry shapes, to various tunes, many times over, mostly in Queensland. Our version, however, is mainly from Jack Lyons of Dubbo, N.S.W. In Ireland the tune is also used for another song, Mary Griffin.

and in the accompanying booklet:

“In the interior of New South Wales is a famine of females. Both sides of the Barwon River the three hundred miles are occupied by sheep and cattle stations and there is not one white woman in the whole distance. These creatures are as rare as back swans in Europe.” So said a voice from far country in the middle of the last century. Folk songs about work are common in Australia, folk songs about love are astonishingly scarce. The Banks of the Condamine is perhaps the best known of this rare species.

Trevor Lucas and Sandy Denny's group Fotheringay's arrangement of Banks of the Nile is probably based on this earlier version, as the tune differs slightly from that used by other UK folk acts, e.g. the Young Tradition.

Martyn Wyndham-Read and Maggie Goodall sang The Banks of the Condamine on Wyndham-Read's LP Across the Line. They were accompanied by Martin Carthy on acoustic guitar, John Kirkpatrick on concertina and Phil Beer on fiddle.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd on The Banks of the Condamine and Other Bush Songs

Hark, hark, the dogs are barking, I can no longer stay.
The boys have all gone shearing, I heard the publican say.
And I must be off in the morning, love, before the sun do shine
To meet the Roma shearers on the banks of the Condamine.

Oh Willie, dearest Willie, don't leave me here to mourn.
Dont make me curse and rue the day that ever I was born.
For parting with you, Willie, is like parting with my life.
So stay and be a selector love and I will be your wife.

Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know that I must go.
The squatters are expecting me their shearing for to do.
And when I'm on the board, my love, I'll think of you with pride
And my shears they will go freely when I'm on the whipping side.

Oh I'll cut off my yellow hair and go along with you,
I'll dress myself in men's attire and be a shearer too.
I'll cook and count your tally, love, whilst ringer-o you shine
And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine.

Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know you cannot go.
The boss has given his orders no woman may do so.
And your delicate constitution isn't equal unto mine
To eat that ramstag mutton on the banks of the Condamine.

But when the shearing's over I'll make of you my wife.
I'll get a boundary riding job and settle down for life.
And when the days' work's done, my love, and the evening it is fine
I'll tell of them sandy cobblers on the banks of the Condamine.

Trevor Lucas on Overlander

“Oh hark! The dogs are barking now, I can no longer stay.
The men have all gone mustering and it is nearly day.
And I must be off in the morning, love, before the sun does shine,
To meet the Sydney shearers on the banks of the Condamine.”

“Oh Willie, dearest Willie, oh let me go with you.
I'll cut off all of me auburn fringes and I'll be a shearer too.
And I'll help you count your tally, loce, while ringer-o you shine
And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine.”

“Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know you cannot go,
The boss has given his orders, love, no woman shall do so.
And your delicate constitution isn't equal unto mine
To stand that constant tiering on the banks of the Condamine.

“Oh Willie, dearest Willie, then stay at home with me.
We'll take up a selection, love, and a farmer's wife I'll be.
And I'll help you husk the corn, me love, and I'll cook your meals so fine,
You'll forget that ram-stag mutton on the banks of the Condamine.

“Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know I cannot stay,
The men have all gone mustering, I heard the publican say.
So here's a goodbye kiss, me love, to homeward I'll incline,
When we've shorn the last of the jumbucks on the banks of the Condamine.”

Trevor Lucas on The Great Australian Legend

“Oh hark! The dogs are barking, I can no longer stay.
The men have all gone mustering, I heard the publican say.
And I must be off in the morning, love, before the sun does shine,
To meet the contract shearers on the banks of the Condamine.”

“Oh Willie, dearest Willie, don't leave me here to mourn.
Don't make be curse and rue the day that ever I was born.
For parting with you, Willie, it's like parting with me life,
So stay and be a selector, love, and I will be your wife.”

“Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know that I must go,
Old Halloran is expectin' me his shearin' for to do.
But when I'm on the board, my love, I'll think of you with pride,
And my shears they will go freely when I'm on the whippin' side.”

“Oh, I'll cut off my yellow hair and go along with you,
I'll dress meself in men's attire and be a shearer too.
I'll cook and count your tally, love, while ringer-o you shine,
And I'll wash your greasy moleskins on the banks of the Condamine.”

“Oh Nancy, dearest Nancy, you know that can't be so,
The boss has given orders, love, no women shall do so.
And your delicate constitution's not equal unto mine,
To eat the ram-stag mutton on the banks of the Condamine.”

“But when the shearin's over, love, I'll make you me wife.
I'll take up a selection and I'll settle down for life.
And when the day's work's over, love, and the evening's clear and fine,
I'll tell of them sandy cobblers on the banks of the Condamine.”

Glossary

mustering

rounding up the sheep (or cattle)

selector

a man who farms a plot made available by the government on cheap terms

whippin' side

the last side of the sheep to be shorn

tally

number of sheep shorn by a shearer in a day's work

ringer

champion shearer, man who shears the greatest number of sheep in a given shearing shed

ram-stag

an inferior male sheep, missed at castrating time, and now fully-grown, a menace to the quality of the flock, and so due for slaughter. Stag mutton is rank, and reckoned “fit for shearers' consumption only”

sandy cobblers

sheep with a fair quantity of sand in their fleece are hard to shear, and shearers tend to leave them till last. “Cobbler” because the cobbler sticks to his last (Australian humour).

Acknowledgements

Lyrics transcribed from Trevor Lucas' singing on Overlander. See also Mark Gregory's Australian Folk Songs entry.