The Wild Colonial Boy
From the singing of Carrie Milliner and the Bobbin
Family.
Wild Colonial Boy
(Traditional)
Arranged by Chloe and Jason Roweth.
Only when siblings Carrie, Tom and Nance were all together for a recording session with Rob Willis could they remember their dad's great tune for The Wild Colonial Boy. The three spoken lines also came from Dad.
There was a Wild Colonial Boy, Jack Doolan was his name,
Of poor but honest parents, he was born in Castlemaine.
He was his father's idol, his mother's pride and joy,
And dearly did his parents love the Wild Colonial Boy.
"So come away my hearties, we'll roam the mountainside,
Together we will plunder, together we will die.
We'll scour along the valleys and gallop o'er the plains,
And scorn to live in slavery, bound down in iron chains."
At scarcely sixteen years of age he left his father's home,
And to Australia's sunny shores a bushranger did roam.
They put him in the iron chains, in the government employ,
But never iron on earth could hold the Wild Colonial Boy.
In sixty-one this daring youth commenced his wild career.
With a heart that knew no danger, no foeman did he fear.
He stuck up the mail coach and robbed Judge McErroy,
Who trembled and gave up his gold to the Wild Colonial Boy.
He bade the judge good morning and told him to beware,
That he'd never rob a needy man who acted on the square
But a judge who' d rob a mother of her son and only joy,
He must be a worse outlaw than the Wild Colonial Boy.
One day as Jack was riding the mountainside alone,
A listening to the little birds; their happy, laughing song,
Three mounted troopers came along, Kelly, Davis and Fitzroy,
With a warrant for the capture of the Wild Colonial Boy.
[Spoken..]
"Surrender now Jack Doolan for you see there's three to one.
Surrender now Jack Doolan, you daring highway-man"
Jack drew a pistol from his belt and shook the little toy,
"I'll fight but not surrender!" cried the Wild Colonial Boy.
He fired at trooper Kelly and brought him to the ground
and in return from Davis he received a mortal wound.
All shattered through the jaw he lay, still firing at Fitzroy,
And that's the way they captured him, the Wild Colonial Boy.