The Birdsville Track - Slim Dusty

Way out in heartbreak corner in Australia’s far outback

The desert broods its secrets along the Birdsville track

A family came and perished oh what a tragic end

That fierce relentless desert has claimed so many men

I’ve learned how thirst can craze the mind in cruel heat outback

And I grieve for that poor family along the Birdsville track

The great white ball of fire rode o’er the cloudless dome

And scorched all living creatures upon the sand and stone

Way out in heartbreak corner they went and ne’er came back

And another story’s buried there along the Birdsville track

Then twilight fell with calmness as silent as a tomb

And phantom streams reflected the rising of the moon

The days and nights that followed brought panic and despair

And blinding sandstorms raged as though to drown a mother’s prayer

Then demons of the desert came to claim their tortured minds

And searching bushmen came too late and read the tragic signs

And now beside a coolabah where desert grasses wave

The brumby stallion leads his mob to skirt the new made graves

Way out in heartbreak corner they went and ne’er came back

May twilight bring them peace at night along the Birdsville track

The dingoes howl so dismally the lonely curlews cry

As though in deepest mourning for those poor souls who died

Way out in heartbreak corner in Australia’s far outback

The desert broods its secrets along the Birdsville track

Oh the desert broods its secrets along the Birdsville track.