Slim Dusty – From The Gulf To Adelaide (Guitar)

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No doubt you've heard of droving trips across the Murranji,

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Of how they brought the bullocks down in the good old days gone by,

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But the greatest drovin’ episode that any man has made,

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Was thirty thousand crocodiles from the Gulf to Adelaide.

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Oh, I never saw the likes of them that mob of crocodiles,

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Thirty footers every one strung out for thirty miles

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Three days it took to start 'em off, three days to straighten em' up,

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Three days we travelled southward, three days to block 'em up.

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They were long and mean and cranky, they had teeth like crosscut saws,

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A-when passin' through some timber, just to exercise their jaws,

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They churned out hardwood posts one foot through by seven tall,

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All stacked up by the stock routes, barked an' sapped an' all.

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Oh, they had a normal appetite as lizards really should,

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And everything in hair or hide was considered a-very good,

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The first day out from Normanton we missed the jackaroo,

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And then, blow me down, the horses went, an' the old blue heeler too.

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And the last we saw of 'Goanna Bob', horse tailor of repute,

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He was headin' toward the rabbit proof with a big croc in pursuit,

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A-when drifting down the Flinders, they cracked on a bit of pace,

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Overtook a mob of bullocks and never left a trace.

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Oh, I've been up and down these stock routes now for twenty years and more,

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And I've never seen a travellin' mob the likes of this before,

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By saltbush plain and gdgee rise down 'long the old Georgina,

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The snapped an' snarled and pawed all day, they were slowly gettin' meaner.

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They didn't like the spinifex a-ticklin' their ol' hides

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And with water gettin' far apart, the tears came to their eyes,

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Now you've heard of crocodile tears, but you wouldn't know the meanin',

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Oh, with thirty thousand sheddin' tears, oh seein' is believin'.

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There was water in the gullies, there was water in the creeks,

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And the old Georgina River runnin' belly deep for weeks,

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Well it was our great salvation for upon that flood of tears,

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We sailed 'em down past Lake Eyre on the biggest flood for years.

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A short step then to Adelaide, an' delivery right on time,

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The agent came to meet us, and here's the ending of this rhyme,

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For he said "you'll have to turn em' around and take them back again,

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For the fashion now in ladies’ shoes is imitation crocodile with the coarser grain."

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        Wouldn’t it rip ya.