the drover's ballad

Lyrics

from the sunburned plains of far-off north australia, came a fella born to ride the wide, brown land, oh, he grew up runnin' wild, but soon, by all, was styled, as the country's greatest-ever drovin' man, oh, his legend rode the winds from broome to darwin, they loved and loathed him right from end to end, for when the drover gave his heart, to a girl whose skin was dark, from that day on, he was no white man's friend, so goes the drover's story, you'll hear it near and far, and in the end, it's all he'll ever own, it says, "the outcast is a free man, if he sleeps under the stars, makes the blanket of the southern skies his home", then they called him up to fight for mother england, in a far-off war that spilled his brothers' blood, inside the jaws of hell, where both his brothers fell, he just watched his faith in man die in the mud, there was no hero's welcome for the drover, just a country that had turned its back on him, when he came home from the war, his sick wife, they were not pure, they let her die for the colour of her skin, so goes the drover's story, you'll hear it near and far, and in the end, it's all he'll ever own, it says, "the outcast is a free man, if he sleeps under the stars, makes the blanket of the southern skies his home", the drover is a man of constant shadows, haunted by his pain, his past, and name, for every mile he rides, what he cannot hide, is the longing in his heart to love again, so goes the drover's story, you'll hear it near and far, and in the end, it's all he'll ever own, it says, "the outcast is a free man, if he sleeps under the stars, makes the blanket of the southern skies his home", makes the blanket of the southern skies his home, his home