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Wild Colonial Boy

by Barry Luft

on The Wild Colonial Boy (2020)

It's of a wild Colonial Boy,
Jack Doolan was his name.
Of poor but honest parents,
He was born in Castlemaine.
He was his father's only hope
And his mother's only joy,
And dearly did his parents love
Their wild colonial boy.

He was scarcely sixteen years of age
When he left his father's home,
And through Australia's sunny clime
A bushranger he roamed.
He robbed those wealthy squatters
And their stock he did destroy.
A terror to Australia was
The wild colonial boy

[chorus]
So come on down, me hearties
We'll roam the mountains high.
Together we will plunder,
And together we will die.
We'll wander through the valleys,
We'll gallop o'er the plains,
We'll scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down in iron chains.

In sixty-one this daring youth
Commenced his wild career.
With a heart that knew no danger,
No foeman did he fear.
He held up the Beechworth mail coach
And he robbed Judge MacEvoy
Who trembled and gave up his gold
To the wild colonial boy.

[chorus]
So come on down, me hearties
We'll roam the mountains high.
Together we will plunder,
And together we will die.
We'll wander through the valleys,
We'll gallop o'er the plains,
We'll scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down in iron chains.

(instrumental)

One day as Jack was rambling
The mountainside along,
Listening to the little birds
Their pleasant laughing song,
There rode three mountain troopers,
Kelly, Davis, and Fitzroy
Who swore that they would capture him,
The wild colonial boy.

"Surrender now, Jack Doolan,
For you see we're three to one;
Surrender now, Jack Doolan,
Or your life will not be long."
Jack pulled a pistol from his belt
And he shook it up on high.
"I'll fight, but not surrender," said
The wild colonial boy.

[chorus]
So come on down, me hearties
We'll roam the mountains high.
Together we will plunder,
And together we will die.
We'll wander through the valleys,
We'll gallop o'er the plains,
We'll scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down in iron chains.

He fired at trooper Kelly
And he brought him to the ground,
Then turnin' 'round to Davis,
He received a mortal wound,
All shattered through the jaws he lay
Still firing at Fitzroy,
And that's the way they captured him,
The wild colonial boy.

[chorus]
So come on down, me hearties
We'll roam the mountains high.
Together we will plunder,
And together we will die.
We'll wander through the valleys,
We'll gallop o'er the plains,
We'll scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down in iron chains.

[chorus]
So come on down, me hearties
We'll roam the mountains high.
Together we will plunder,
And together we will die.
We'll wander through the valleys,
We'll gallop o'er the plains,
We'll scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down in iron chains.