> Danny Spooner > Songs > Rabbit Trapper

Rabbit Trapper

[trad.]

Danny Spooner sang Rabbit Trapper on his 2007 anthology Years of Spooner. He noted:

I’ve always loved the laconic humour to be found in Australian folk songs, and this is a great example. The Aussie bushman was a law unto himself, proud, independent and capable. A man to be admired. I got this song from Alan Scott, a wonderful singer and folklorist, who inspired many a young singer and whose passing left a large gap in the Australian folk scene.

Lyrics

Danny Spooner sings Rabbit Trapper

Now my traps is all a-jangle in an easy swinging tangle,
And I’m setting in a circle keeping to a fringe of trees;
Though I’m mud and gory spattered and my clothes is torn and tattered,
I’m as carefree as the bunnies, till they fall for one of these.

I’m under no man’s orders and I recognize no borders,
Amd there’s a welcome every where fer me and my old dungarees;
For I am a rabbit trapper, a canny bunny snapper,
And I whistle through the bushland like the birds up in the trees.

While some blokes talk to tabbies, I am out among the rabbies,
I can hear ’em buck and squealin’, a dozen traps ahead,
And again while they are flirtin’ at my last trap I’ll be certain
To be baggin’ up my bunnies, keeping tally as I tread.

So come on my old cobber, we’ll put on some decent clobber
And we’ll leave the bunnies playin’ in and out among the trees;
We’ll get to the railway early, there’s a shy and dinkum girlie
And i’ll juggle with the cream cans while she writes out cheques for me.