Like a Family to Me - Slim Dusty

Well the best is all behind you,

by the time you reach my age in years

And the only luxuries you know

are a T-bone steak and a round or two of beer

And the roads you know are the distant tracks

And the bulldust and the never ending spaces

And the only family you know

Is the smiling friendly outback peoples faces

I’ve got no family of my own,

This old drivers always been, a rolling stone

But there’s always some waiting,

Waiting there beyond the saltbush sea

No matter how long I’ve been gone,

They’ve always got the billy on

Waiting like a family for me'

There’s always someone waiting

On a lonely isolated cattle run

Sitting on the stockyard rails

To roll a smoke and watch the setting sun

And we’ll shake hands and we’ll swap news,

Boil the billy on the coals for tea

By first light I’ll be loaded up,

Sail again across the saltbush sea.

Tomorrow I’ll be gone again

Alone with my fully loaded train

The farewells are behind me,

And it might be 12 months 'ere I call again

But there’s a bond that ties me to

The people of beyond the saltbush sea

It’s the bond of the outback

That makes them like a family to me

I’ve got no family of my own,

This old drivers always been, a rolling stone

But there’s always some waiting,

Waiting there beyond the saltbush sea

Oh no matter how long I’ve been gone,

They’ve always got the billy on

Waiting like a family for me

Waiting like a family for me.