BY THE BANKS OF THE REEDY LAGOON



The sweet scented wattle sheds perfume around

Delighting the bird and the bee

While I lie and take rest in my fern covered nest

In the shad of the currajong tree

High up in the air I can hear the refrain

Of a butcherbird piping his tune

For the spring in her glory has come back again

To the banks of the reedy lagoon



I've carried me bluey for many a mile

Me boot are worn out at the toes

And I'm dressing this season in different style

Than what I did wear last year, God knows

My cooking utensils, I'm sorry to say

Consist of a knife and a spoon

And I've dry bread and tea in a battered Jack Shay

By the banks of the reedy lagoon

Oh where is young Frankie and how he could ride

And Johnnie the light-hearted boy?

They tell me that lately he's taken a bride

A benedict's life to enjoy

And Mac, the big Scotsman, I once heard him say

He'd wrestled the famous Muldoon

But they're all gone away and it's lonely today

By the banks of the reedy lagoon



And where is the lady I often caressed

The girl with the sad dreamy eyes?

She pillows her head on another man's breast

He tells her the very same lies

My bed she would hardly be willing to share

Where I camp by the light of the moon

But it's little I care, for I'd never keep square

By the banks of the reedy lagoon



@Australia

sung by Gordon Bok and Martyn Wyndom-Read

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SF

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