George From Bordertown

He talks about his youth in south Australia
Raised on a farm south east of Bordertown
The happiest years of his life he remember
Were spent out on the paddocks gray to brown.

Helping his dad the sheep farmer with fence mending
The summer months were long and warm and dry
Old George he may be showing his years in greyness
But at heart he is still a country boy.

He went to see the World beyond the farm
For on the farm he had no wish to stay
Australia is a land of open spaces
And for years he had dreamt of places far away.

And he left home when he was a teenager
Just eighteen years and yet to reach his prime
In retrospect he says how quick those years flew
There is no holding back the hands of time.

He moved to Adelaide to the big City
A strange new world for a fresh faced country boy
And for awhile he felt like a fish out of water
For he was green to city life and shy.

He worked near Adelaide but he failed to settle
As the suburban lifestyle he did not enjoy
And from there he moved to the north of Perth in Western Australia
To the vast outback lands of the big sky.

For forty years he worked as a sheep shearer
And of alcohol he has drank more than enough
Gray haired and looking wrinkled from the hard life
You well might say old George has lived it rough.

He worked in shearing sheds around Australia
In Queensland, Central Australia and the West
In South Australia, New South Wales and in Victoria
George in his day held his own with the best.

I last met him in the Young and Jackson pub in Melbourne
In a half an hour he said I'm out of here
I'm on the eight o clock train to Wodonga
I just have the time to drink another beer.

Old George from Bordertown in South Australia
Will keep on wandering till the day he die
He never seem to care for city living
And in his heart he's still a country boy.