The Glorified Bushmen

This lively ballad celebrates the freedom and self-sufficiency of Australian bushmen compared to other professions like soldiers, sailors and merchants.

Adopting an enthusiastic bush voice, Paterson depicts the bushman’s peaceful mindset and contentment with basic provisions like meat and bread. Vivid images evoke frontier ruggedness and resilience.

The speaker implies bushmen are liberated from the ambitious stresses and hazards facing urban careers. Instead they live simply, at one with the landscape that sustains them.

References to weathering any war evoke nationalist ideals of noble ruggedness and solidarity. Bush life is presented as enabling Tranquility and matehood missing in complex cosmopolitan spheres.

While romanticized, the ballad expresses core Aussie ideals of mateship, independence and drawing strength from the environment. Bushmen are glorified as a distinctively Australian symbol of virtue.

So “The Bushman” insightfully crystallizes late 19th century attitudes exalting the outback worker as the nation’s heroic archetype. Their way of life offered meaning and models missing in modernizing society.

THE BUSHMAN

(Air: “Wearing of the Green.”)

When the merchant lies down, he can scarce go to sleep
For thinking of his merchandise upon the fatal deep;
His ships may be cast away or taken in a war,
So him alone we’ll envy not, who true bushmen are.

 Chorus: Who true bushmen are,
         Who true bushmen are,

So him alone we’ll envy not, who true bushmen are!

When the soldier lies down, his mind is full of thought
O’er seeking that promotion which so long he has sought;
He fain would gain repose for mortal wound or scar,
So him also we’ll envy not, who true bushmen are.

 Chorus: Who true bushmen are, &c.

When the sailor lies down, his mind he must prepare
To rouse out in a minute if the wind should prove unfair.
His voyage may be stopped for the want of a spar,
So him also we’ll envy not, who true bushmen are.

 Chorus: Who true bushmen are, &c.

When the bushman lies down, his mind is free from care,
He knows his stock will furnish him with meat, wear and tear.
Should all commerce be ended in the event of a war,
Then bread and beef won’t fail us boys, who true bushmen are.

 Chorus: Who true bushmen are, &c.

Then fill, fill your glasses, a toast I’ll give you, then,
To you who call yourselves true-hearted men.
Here’s a health to the soldier and e’en the jolly tar,
And may they always meet as good friends as we bushmen are.

 Chorus: Who true bushmen are,
         Who true bushmen are,

And may they always meet as good friends as we bushmen are.