A Bushman’s Farewell to Queensland

Queensland thou art a land of pests

 For flies and

E’sn more

In fact they are the very devil

And flies and hornets, just as bad

They nearly drive a fellow mad.

The scorpions and centipedes,

With stinging ants of every breed.

(Missing line) 

Tarantulas and poisons ness snakes

 Iguanas Lizards cockatoos

Bushranger’s dogs and Jackaroos.

Bandicoots and swarms of rats

Bull   ants  and native cats

Stunted timber, thirsty plains

Parched up deserts scanty rains

There’s rivers you can’t sail ships on

There’s native workers without shifts on

There’s hum ties huts and wooden houses

There’s native men who don’t wear trousers.

There’s Barcoo rot and sandy blight

There’s dingos howling all the night

There’s curlews wait by rotting hogs

There’s savage blacks and native dogs

There’s scan press flowers and stinging trees

There’s poisonous grass and darting flees

Which drive the cattle raving mad

Make sheep and cattle just as bad

And then it never rains in season

There’s drought one year and floods the next

Which sweep the squatters sheep away

And then there is the hell to pay

To stay in this o’ land of mutton!

I would not give a single button!

But bit thee now a long farewell

Thou scorching sunburnt land of hell.

Signed Tom 

  This appears to be an unedited poem written on the back of a Xmas card posted to his parents.  A few lines are proving difficult to read and italics are used where there is uncertainty.