Travelling Down the Castlereagh

I'm travellin' down the Castlereagh, and I'm a station-hand

I'm handy with the ropin' pole, I'm handy with the brand

And I can ride a rowdy colt, or swing an axe all day

There's no demand for a station-hand along the Castlereagh

And it's shift, boys, shift, there isn't the slightest doubt

We'll have to make a shift for the stations further out

I saddled up my horses, and I whistled to my dog

And we strike across the country at the old jig-jog

I asked a bloke for shearin' once along the Marthaguy

He says"We shear non-union here.""I call it scab(?)," says I

I looked across the shearin' floor before I turned to go

There were eight to ten non-union men a-shearin' in a row

And it's shift, boys, shift, there isn't the slightest doubt

We'll have to make a shift with the leprosy about

I saddled up my horses, and I whistled to my dog

We left his scabby station at the old jig-jog

This old black horse I'm riding, you'll notice a proper brand

He wears the crooked R, you see, none better in the land

He takes a lot of beatin', and the other day we tried

For a bit of a joke, with a racing bloke, for twenty pounds a side

And it's shift, boys, shift, there isn't the slightest doubt

We'll have to make a shift, for the money was runnin' out

He cantered home a winner, with the other one at the flog

He's a red-hot sort to pick up with his old jig-jog

It's time I was movin', I've a mighty way to go

Till I drink artesian water from a thousand feet below

And meet the overlanders with the cattle comin' down

I'll work a while and make a pile, and have a spree in town

And it's shift, boys, shift, for there isn't the slightest doubt

We'll have to make a shift for the stations further out

I saddled up my horses, and I whistled to my dog

And we strike across the country at the old jig-jog