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The Broken-Down Squatter

[ Roud 8392 ; Ballad Index MA042 ; DT BRKSQUAT ; Mudcat 39000 ; Charles Augustus Flower]

Martyn Wyndham-Read sang The Broken-Down Squatter in 1978 on his Autogram album Ballad Singer and in 2010 on his CD Back to You on which he noted:

Droughts and starving stock seem to be the staple diet of many an Australian squatter (pastoralist). This is vividly portrayed in this song of when times were hard and life was a struggle, and help and support were withdrawn. In this song the Squatter is reduced to singing his lament to his only surviving horse which is presumably a good listening horse. The words were written by Charles Augustus Flower in I894, and were sung to the great Australian song collector John Meredith by Jack ‘Hoop Iron’ Lee in 1953.

Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King sang The Broken-Down Squatter, “an Australian song learnt orally by Derek and Hazel”, in ca. 1980 on their Luzifer album Shades of Loving and Leaving.

Fraser and Ian Bruce sang Broken Down Squatter on their 1982 album Veil of the Ages. This track was also included in 20011 on Ian Bruce’s “first 30 years” anthology Hits & Pieces and in 2015 on their Greentrax anthology The Best of Mrs Bruce’s Boys. They noted on the first album:

This is a traditional Australian song which tells of the terrible drought during last century which brought ruin to many squatter farmers. The squatters didn’t actually own the land they farmed and when they began running out of funds the Australian goverment refused to subsidise them causing many to go bust.

Jolly Jack sang Broken Down Squatter in 1983 on their Fellside album Rolling Down to Old Maui. They noted:

A man suffering the consequences of an Australian drought and harsh legislation is reduced at last to conversing with his horse, which bears the unhappy name of ‘Stumpy».

This ditty is attributed to brothers Charles and Horace Flowers, prolific amateur songwriters of Queensland, and the tune from the singing of one ‘Hoopiron Jack’ Lee of New South Wales, a lazy rolling version of It’s a Fine Hunting Day.

Lyrics

Wartyn Wyndham-Read sings The Broken-Down Squatter

Come Stumpy old man we must shift while we can
Your mates in the paddock are dead
We must bid a farewell to Glen Evans fair dell
The place where your master was bred
Together we’ll roam from our drought stricken home
Seems hard that such things have to be
And it’s hard on a horse when he’s none for a boss
But a broken down Squatter like me

Chorus (after each verse):
And the banks are all broken they say
The merchants are all up a tree
When the big wigs are brought to the bankruptcy court
What chance for a squatter like me.

No more we will muster the river for fats
Nor spiel on the fifteen mile plain
Nor rip through the scrub by the light of the moon
Nor see the old homestead again
Leave the slip panels down they don’t matter much now
There’s none but the crows left to see
Sitting gaunt on a pine as though longing to dine
On a broken down Squatter like me.

When the country was cursed with the drought at it’s worst
The cattle were dying in scores
Though down on me luck I kept up me pluck
Thinking justice might temper the cause
But the farce has been played and the government aid
Ain’t extended to Squatters old son
When me money was spent they doubled the rent
And resumed the best half of the run.

Oh ’twas done without reason for leaving the season
No Squatter could stand such a rub
And it’s useless to squat when the rents are so hot
That you can’t find the price of your grub
And there’s not much to choose ’tween the banks and the screws
When a feller gets put up a tree
No odds how I feel there’s no court of appeal
For a broken down Squatter like me.