From The Gulf To Adelaide - Slim Dusty

No doubt you’ve heard of droving trips across the Murringai

And how they brought the bullocks down in the good old days gone bye

But the greatest droving episode that any man has made

Was 30,000 crocodiles from the Gulf to Adelaide

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

Thirty footers every one strung out for thirty miles

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

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

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

When passin' though some timber, just to exercise their jaws

They churned out hardwood posts one foot through by seven tall

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

Oh they had a normal appetite as lizards really should

And everything in hair or hide was considered very good

The first day out from Normanton we missed the jackaroo

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

And the last we saw of Goanna Bob, horse tailer of repute

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

When drifting down the Flinders, they cracked on a bit of pace

Oh they took a mob of bullocks and never left a trace.

Oh I’ve been up and down these stock routes now for 20 years or more

But I’ve never seen a travellin' mob the likes of this before

By Saltbush plains and Gidgee rise down 'long the old Georgina

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

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

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

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

Oh with 30,000 sheddin' tears, Oh seein' is believin'

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

And the old Georgina River runnin' belly deep for weeks

For it was our great salvation for upon that flood of tears

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

A short step then to Adelaide, and delivery right on time

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

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

For the fashion now in ladies shoes is imitation crocodile with the courser

grain

Spoken

Wouldn’t it rip you