Lyrics From The Gulf To Adelaide - 1996 Digital Remaster - Slim Dusty

No doubt you've heard of droving trips across the Murringai,
And how they brought the bullocks down in the good old days gone bye,
But the greatest droving episode that any man has made,
Was 30, 000 crocodiles from the Gulf to Adelaide.

Oh I never saw the likes of them that mob of crocodiles,
Thirty footers every one strung out for thirty miles
Three days it took to start 'em off, three days to straighten em' up,
Three days we travelled southward, three days to block 'em up.

They were long and mean and cranky, they had teeth like cross cut saws,
When passin' though some timber, just to exercise their jaws,
They churned out hardwood posts one foot through by seven tall,
All stacked up by the stock route, barked an' sapped an' all.

Oh they had a normal appetite as lizards really should,
And everything in hair or hide was considered very good,
The first day out from Normanton we missed the jackaroo,
But then, blow me down, the horses went, an' the old blue heeler too.

And the last we saw of Goanna Bob, horse tailer of repute,
He was headin' toward the rabbit proof with a big croc in pursuit,
When drifting down the Flinders, they cracked on a bit of pace,
Oh they took a mob of bullocks and never left a trace.

Oh I've been up and down these stock routes now for 20 years or more,
But I've never seen a travellin' mob the likes of this before,
By Saltbush plains and Gidgee rise down 'long the old Georgina,
The snapped an' snarled and pawed all day, they were slowly gettin' meaner.

They didn't like the spinifex a ticklin' their ol' hides
And with water gettin' far apart, the tears came to their eyes,
Now you've heard of crocodile tears but you wouldn't know the meanin',
Oh with 30, 000 sheddin' tears, Oh seein' is believin'.

There was water in the gullies, there was water in the creeks,
And the old Georgina River runnin' belly deep for weeks,
For it was our great salvation for upon that flood of tears,
We sailed 'em down past Lake Eyre on the biggest flood for years.

A short step then to Adelaide, and delivery right on time,
The agent came to meet us, and here's the ending of this rhyme,
For he said you'll have to turn em' around and take them back again,
For the fashion now in ladies shoes is imitation crocodile with the courser grain.

Spoken
Wouldn't it rip you.