Unraveling Paterson’s Amusing Outback Mystery

Paterson’s humorous bush ballad “Been There Before” showcases his knack for using entertaining narratives to provide cultural commentary. On the surface, it shares an amusing tale about an outsider outwitting country folk. But deeper themes lie beneath the comedy.

We follow a confident stranger who takes a seemingly impossible bet to throw a stone across a wide river in the remote town of Walgett. When he mysteriously succeeds, the local “yokels” are dumbfounded at his feat in the stoneless landscape.

Paterson milks the absurd situation by gradually revealing in the conclusion the stranger had cunningly dropped a pebble in his past visit – making the locals look naive in their assumptions.

While the cheeky stranger appears clever, Paterson implies his previous time in Walgett was during hardship, making his earlier act foresight against future desperation. Critics suggest Paterson is alluding to complex themes of cyclical rural poverty.

So with deceptive simplicity, “Been There Before” spotlights Paterson’s gift for using humor to gently probe deeper concerns. In showing truth’s intricacy, he advances understanding of the Australian experience.

Been There Before

There came a stranger to Walgett town,
To Walgett town when the sun was low,
And he carried a thirst that was worth a crown,
Yet how to quench it he did not know;
But he thought he might take those yokels down,
The guileless yokels of Walgett town.

They made him a bet in a private bar,
In a private bar when the talk was high,
And they bet him some pounds no matter how far
He could pelt a stone, yet he could not shy
A stone right over the river so brown,
The Darling river at Walgett town.

He knew that the river from bank to bank
Was fifty yards, and he smiled a smile
As he trundled down, but his hopes they sank
For there wasn’t a stone within fifty mile;
For the saltbush plain and the open down
Produce no quarries in Walgett town.

The yokels laughed at his hopes o’erthrown,
And he stood awhile like a man in a dream;
Then out of his pocket he fetched a stone,
And pelted it over the silent stream —
He had been there before: he had wandered down
On a previous visit to Walgett town.