A very popular literary theme in Australia in the late 19th century was “City vs. Bush” . Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson had a long debate about it, in verse, in the pages of The Bulletin. This poem shows where Banjo Paterson stood, but according to Lawson, Paterson’s view of “the bush” was way too romantic. It was published under the pen name : “The Banjo”
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The character of Clancy of the Overflow is said to be based on a man named Thomas Gerald Clancy. The story is this : Paterson, a lawyer by profession, was seeking the whereabouts of a shearer of this name in a legal matter. So he addressed a letter to him simply as “Clancy of the Overflow”, the Overflow being a station south of Cobar in New South Wales. He got a one line reply “ `Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.' The simplicity and rhythm of this response set Banjo Paterson to writing his famous poem. With its description of a city’s squalor, oppression, and pollution , the poem has quite a modern feel to it.
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Clancy of the Overflow appears in another of Paterson’s poems : “The Man from Snowy River” . [Track 4 on this album ]
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Thomas Gerald Clancy wrote a riposte to “Banjo” Paterson in 1897, which is quoted here.
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Tom Clancy’s Riposte to Banjo Paterson
Neath the star-spangled dome
Of my Austral home,
When watching by the camp fire's ruddy glow,
Oft in the flickering blaze
Is presented to my gaze
The sun-drenched kindly faces
Of the men of Overflow.
Now, though years have passed forever
Since I used, with best endeavour
Clip the fleeces of the jumbucks
Down the Lachlan years ago,
Still in memory linger traces
Of many cheerful faces,
And the well-remembered visage
Of the Bulletin's "Banjo".
Tired of life upon the stations,
With their wretched, scanty rations,
I took a sudden notion
That a droving I would go;
Then a roving fancy took me,
Which has never since forsook me,
And decided me to travel,
And leave the Overflow.
So with maiden ewes from Tubbo,
I passed en route to Dubbo,
And across the Lig'num country
Where the Barwon waters flow;
Thence onward o'er the Narran,
By scrubby belts of Yarran,
To where the landscape changes
And the cotton bushes grow.
And my path I've often wended
Over drought-scourged plains extended,
Where phantom lakes and forests
Forever come and go;
And the stock in hundreds dying,
Along the road are lying,
To count among the 'pleasures"
That townsfolk never know.
Over arid plains extended
My route has often tended,
Droving cattle to the Darling,
Or along the Warrego;
Oft with nightly rest impeded,
When the cattle had stampeded,
Save I sworn that droving pleasures
For the future I'd forego.
So of drinking liquid mire
I eventually did tire,
And gave droving up forever
As a life that was too slow.
Now, gold digging, in a measure,
Affords much greater pleasure
To your obedient servant,
"Clancy of the Overflow".
=======================
lyrics
Clancy of the Overflow (1889)
by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson (1864 - 1941)
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[V.1]
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better knowledge
Sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just `on spec', addressed as follows, `Clancy, of The Overflow ‘
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[V.2]
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected, (And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
`Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.'
---------------------------------------------------------
[V.3]
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving `down the Cooper' where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know
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[V.4]
And the bush hath friends to meet him and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars. …
------------------------------------------------
[V.5]
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the fetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all
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[V.6]
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet. …
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[V.7]
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste. …
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[V.8]
And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of ` The Overflow '.
================================================
credits
from Drovers, Stockmen and Bullockies,
track released November 7, 2023
Tune : based on the version
by Peter Dawson (1882 – 1961)
written by : Albert Arlen (1905 – 1993)
Cello and flute by Lillian Penner
The Queensland Tiger covers traditional Australian ballads mainly from 19C.: e.g. Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Breaker
Morant, Charles Thatcher, etc…. true to the original works.
website : www.thequeenslandtiger.com or Youtube channel : The Queensland Tiger...more
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