"Brisbane Ladies" is an Australian folksong and is one of many adaptations of the traditional British naval song "Spanish Ladies". The version given below is the most commonly sung, but the original mentions Nanango favorably as "that jolly old township". The song is also known as "Augathella Station".
History
The lyric dates back to at least the 1880s and is credited to a jackaroo-turned-shopkeeper named Saul Mendelsohn, who lived near Nanango. The place names used in the song were part of the route that cattle drovers used when returning from Brisbane to the cattle station at Augathella in west-central Queensland. Those place names include Toowong, Augathella, Caboolture, Kilcoy, Collington's Hut, Blackbutt, Bob Williamson's paddock, Taromeo, Yarraman Creek, Nanango and Toomancie.
Lyrics
Farewell and adieu to you, Brisbane ladies
Farewell and adieu, you maids of Toowong
We've sold all our cattle and we have to get a movin'
But we hope we shall see you again before long.
Chorus: We'll rant and we'll roar like true Queensland drovers We'll rant and we'll roar as onward we push Until we return to the Augathella station Oh, it's flamin' dry goin' through the old Queensland bush.
The first camp we make, we shall call it the Quart Pot, Caboolture, then Kilcoy, and Colinton's Hut, We'll pull up at the Stone House, Bob Williamson's paddock, And early next morning we cross the Blackbutt.
Chorus
Then on to Taromeo and Yarraman Creek, lads, It's there we shall make our next camp for the day Where the water and grass are both plenty and sweet, lads, And maybe we'll butcher a fat little stray.
Chorus
Then on to Nanango, that hard-bitten township
Where the out-of-work station-hands sit in the dust, Where the shearers get shorn by old Tim, the contractor Oh, I wouldn't go near there, but I flaming well must!
Chorus
The girls of Toomancie they look so entrancing
Like bawling young heifers they're out for their fun
With the waltz and the polka and all kinds of dancing
To the rackety old banjo of Bob Anderson.
Chorus
Then fill up your glasses, and drink to the lasses, We'll drink this town dry, then farewell to them all And when we've got back to the Augathella Station, We hope you'll come by there and pay us a call.
Artists that have performed "Brisbane Ladies" "Brisbane Ladies" has been performed and recorded by a number of various Australian artists, including bush bands. Snake Gully Bush Band The Wild Colonial Boys John Greenway on the 1959 album "Australian Folksongs and Ballads" Gary Shearston on the 1964 album "Folk Songs And Ballads Of Australia" Various Artists at the 2004 "Chris Kempster Tribute Concert" The Bushwackers, under the title of "Augathella Station" on the album "Murrumbidgee" Hoyt Axton recorded Brisbane Ladies on his album "Greenback Dollar, Live at the Trubadour"