Our Aussie Blog

• There are only two egg-laying mammals in the world, both of which come from Australia – The echidna, or spiny anteater, and the platypus.
• A kangaroo’s tail does not touch the ground when it is hopping at speed. The animal only uses the tail to balance its jumping efforts, and to rear upon when stopped.
• The first flight across the Pacific Ocean was made by Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, from Oakland in California to Brisbane, Australia in 1928.
• 95% of the world’s opal are dug up in Australia, and also the biggest opals outright. (The record holder being 6.8 kg!)
• The first around-the-world passenger service by an airline was started by Qantas, in 1958.
• Qantas stands for Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.
• Qantas is the world’s second oldest airline, (est 1920) with only KLM being older.
• Australia took on its unification of the six British colonies in 1901, when a single Australia-wide government was formed.
• Australia is one of the most governed countries on earth, with one politician for every 20,000 Aussies. The British have one politician for every 45,000 people.
• Australia’s National Anthem was “God Save The Queen”, up until 1984, where upon it was changed to “Advance Australia Fair”. This was due to a referendum in 1977. It took that long to get a non militaristic and politically correct version out. (The original second verse was cut completely)
• On the 7th of March, 1856, workers in Sydney belonging to the Stonemason’s Society were the first workers in the world to gain an eight hour working day. (reduced from ten hours)  This is celebrated in Australia by the holiday, “Labour Day”.
• The first pension for women in the world was brought in by the New South Wales government in 1926.
• The first ‘secret ballot’ system for parliament in the world was introduced in the Legislative Council of Victoria, Australia, on 27-8-1856. The rest of the world took another few decades.
• The preferential voting system was first introduced into the world in Queensland, in 1892.
• The Utility, or as it’s called in Australia the ‘ute’, was invented in Australia by Ford in 1932. The legend has it that it that a farmer came to Ford, looking for a car that could “work on the farm all week, and then take the wife to church on Sundays.”

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For more information about Afterpay or to register an account with Afterpay, visit their website.

John Williamson is one of our contemporary musicians and sings with a truly authentic Aussie sound, over the years he’s put out some brilliant songs that speak to the hearts of most Australians but I wanted to highlight one of his really fun songs that he put out in the early ’70s.

Old Man Emu

by John Williamson

Let me tell you of an interview with an Old Man Emu
He’s got a beak and feathers and things, but the poor old fella ain’t got no wings
“Aren’t you jealous of the wedge-tail eagle?” – dom ba da little da da da

(Spoken in tempo) “While the eagle’s flying round and round, I keep my two feet firmly on the ground
I can’t fly, but I’m telling you, I can run the pants off a kangaroo”.

doo dee ba doo doo doo , boo da da doot doo doo doo
He can’t fly, but I’m telling you, he can run the pants off a kangaroo.

Well he was the model for the fifty cents – oom ba da little da da da
The designer should have had more sense – oom ba da little da da da
If you take a look, it’ll prove to you, I ran the pants off that kangaroo.

Doo dee ba doo doo doo…Boo da da doot doo doo..
Take a look it’ll prove to you, he can run the pants off the kangaroo.

You can’t loop the loop like a cockatoo – Oom ba da little da da da
Swoop and toss like an albatross – Oom ba da little da da da
“You silly galah, I’m better by far, than a white cockatoo or a budgerigar;
They squeak and squawk and try to talk, why me and them’s like cheese and chalk”
Ba da da Doo dee ba doo doo doo…Boo da da doot doo doo doo
He can’t fly but I’m telling you, he can run the pants off a kangaroo…

Well the last time I saw Old Man Emu – Oom ba da little da da da
He was chasing a female he knew – Oom ba da little da da da
As he shot past I heard him say “She can’t fly, but I’m telling you
She could run the pants off a kangaroo”. –

Ba da da Doo dee ba doo doo doo Doo dee ba doo doo doo…Boo da da doot doo doo doo
She can’t fly but I’m telling you, she can run the pants off a kangaroo

Well there is a moral to this ditty – Oom ba da little da da da
Thrush can sing but he ain’t pretty – Oom ba da little da da da
Duck can swim, but he can’t sing, nor can the eagle on the wing
Emu can’t fly, but I’m telling you, he can run the pants off a kangaroo.

Well the kookaburra laughed and said “It’s true, oom ba da little da da da,
Ha Ha Ha Ha Hah Hoo, He can run the pants off a kangaroo”.

• The Emu is native to Australia and it is believed to have existed almost unchanged for over 80 million years.
• Emus grow to approximately 6 feet tall and is the second largest bird in the world.
• Emu and ostrich are totally different birds. The only similarity they share is that they are both flightless.
• The Emu is an omnivore. In the wild its diet consists of grains and seeds and small rodents, reptiles and birds.
• Females can lay up to 60 eggs per season. The average egg production for a hen is 30 to 40 eggs.
• The eggs are dark green and weigh 1 to 1 1/2 pounds (500 to 780 grams).
• The male Emu incubates the eggs 50 to 60 days and then raises the chicks.
• An Emu grows quickly and reaches its full height in one year.
• Emus love water and are excellent swimmers.

We sell some terrific emu products in our store, from pewter figurines to plush toys, check them out here.

CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW

by A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago
.He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just “on spec,” addressed as follows:  “Clancy of The Overflow”.

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumbnail dipped in tar)
‘Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
“Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.”

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving “down the Cooper” where the western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal –
But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of  “The Overflow.”

Great Aussie song that has been around a long time but brought back into modern Australia due to Don Burke and his “Burke’s Backyard” show, they used a slightly modified version of this as the theme song to the show.

Home Among The Gum Trees

by W. Johnson and B. Brown

I’ve been around the world a couple of time, or maybe more,
I’ve seen the sights, I’ve had delights on ev’ery foreign shore,
But when my friends all ask me the place that I adore,
I tell them right away.

Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.

You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast,
Or vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea.
Later on, we’ll settle down and mull up on the porch
And watch the possums play.

Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.

There’s a Safeway on the corner and a Woolworths down the street,
A New World’s just been opened where they regulate the heat,
But I’d trade them all tomorrow for the simple bush retreat
Where the kookaburras call.

Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.

Some people like their houses with fences all around,
Others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground,
But me, I like the bush, you know, with rabbits running round
And a pumpkin vine out the back.

Give me a home among the gum trees.
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, verandah out the front
And an old rocking chair.

• The Southern Cassowary is the third tallest and second heaviest living bird, smaller only than the Ostrich and Emu.
• The name cassowary comes from two Papuan words, ‘kasu’ meaning horned and ‘weri’ meaning head, referring to the prominent casque on its head.
• An adult cassowary can stand up to 1.8 metres (6’) tall.
• Cassowaries are solitary birds except during courtship, egg-laying, and sometimes around ample food supplies.
• The male cassowary is solely responsible for incubating the eggs and raising the young. They sit on the nest for 50 days until the eggs hatch.
• The father teaches the chicks how to forage and by nine months they become independent.
• There are only about 1500 cassowaries left in the wild.

2 ozs. butter
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup well mashed, thoroughly drained cooked pumpkin
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
pinch salt
1 egg beaten well
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 cup milk

Method:

Soften butter, beat in the sugar until creamy. Stir in the pumpkin, spice and beaten egg, mixing thoroughly. Sift together flour and salt and mix in. Add the milk, mix to a soft dough and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll out to 3/4 inch thick, cut into rounds with a 2 inch cutter, flouring it each time you cut. Arrange scones on a lightly greased oven tray, brush tops with milk and bake in a hot oven about 15 minutes or until browned.

A real favourite and probably our most known song outside of Australia.

WALTZING MATILDA

A.B. “Banjo” Paterson

Oh! There once was a swagman camped in a Billabong
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,
‘Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda my darling,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag –
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker-bag,
‘You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!’

Down came the Squatter a-riding his thoroughbred;
Down came Policemen – one, two, and three.
‘Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in the tucker-bag?
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!’

But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong
‘Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?’

We have Australian made pewter belt buckles depicting a scene from Waltzing Matilda, view them here.