Give me back my ol’ slab shack
Out where the Ironbark grow
Where the dingoes call; as shadows fall
Like they did so long ago.

Sitting there beside the campfire
While the billy’s on the boil
You soon forget your aching limbs
From the strain of a hard day’s toil.

And, as you sit there dreamin’
Of the loved ones left at home
A night owl calls from a mountain oak
That makes you feel so much alone.

I hear the tinkle of the hobble chain
As my pony goes down the track
He’s heading for the water hole
But he’ll soon be coming back.

He’ll hang ‘round the camp fire
Until I am ready for my bed
Then he’ll whinny softly
For a lump of sugar or bit of bread.

A big full moon is rising
Behind the mountain crest
Then the bush will come to life,
That’s the time I love the best.

The big, blue gums down by the creek
That’s where the gliders play
And as they fly from tree to tree
You can see them as plain as day.

The fireflies out in the scrub
They make a pretty sight
Like glowing sparks from a blacksmith’s fire
They light up the bush at night.

The possum from the smallest tree
Gives out his mating call
You can hear him through the timber
That grows so straight and tall.

And; now the moon has risen high
It’s time to go to bed.
It’s just two bags ‘tween two poles
And a pillow for my head.

That’s my story of the bush
Where I’ll never work again
No more to see the firefly,
Nor hear the hobble chain.

I’ll have to be contented
‘til the good Lord calls me home,
But in my finest memories
The bush will always be my home.

by Nulla Nulla