The Blooming Queensland Side is a traditional Australian song, but the composer of the song is unknown.
The song was also published in 1894 as The Banks of the Riverine.
The Blooming Queensland Side is sung as a duet between a man and a woman. He wants to marry her and take her to Queensland, while she questions whether he’s been faithful.
A bullocky is the driver of a bullock team which carries a variety of cargo around the country rather like the truckers of today.
As you can see in the song, he wants to move to Queensland because there’s too much competition from the trains in Victoria.
MAN
Oh, come with me, my pretty girl, now come away with me,
I’ll take you o’er the borders and we’ll leave this colony,
Come away, my heart’s desire, my darling and my pride,
And I’ll treat you like a lady, love, on the blooming Queensland side.
Victoria’s going to the bad, this bullocky cannot live;
The price of cartage comes so low, the squatters nothing to give.
There’s a railway in every corner, you can meet them at every stride,
So we’ll away in the morning to the blooming Queensland side.
So have your things in readiness at the breaking of the day,
I’ll take you to the parson, love, and the words o’er us he’ll say.
When he has tied us two together with a knot that can’t be untied,
Then we’ll away in the morning to the blooming Queensland side.
WOMAN
I would like to know if you’ve been true, I would like to know that
same,
You bullockies are such knowing chaps, you are up to every game.
Perhaps, with some young dashing bell a-walking by your side
You’ve been doing a little killing on the bloom Queensland side.
MAN
If old Whitefoot in the pole could speak, I bet he’d answer “No”,
I always have been true to you wherever I did go.
And if I now prove false to you may the grave my body hide,
And I’ll never set foot again on the blooming Queensland side.
WOMAN
I know my bullocky is true — was always always true to me,
I only wanted to try you and hear what you would say.
Then I will be a constant wife until death us divide,
Then you can marry the prettiest girl on the blooming Queensland
side.
MAN
I’ll teach you my darling, a damper how to bake,
Fry chops in the morning, and cook a brownie cake,
And on top of my wagon so gaily you will ride,
They will think you’re Queen Victoria a-going for a drive.
It’s over the pole each night we’ll cast the canvas down,
And underneath its spreading folds we’ll sleep both safe and sound,
The cold will never trouble you, for the weather is always mild,
And the summer breezes gently blow on the blooming Queensland
side.
When over in Queensland you are arrived at home,
It’s up and down the Condamine of an evening you can roam,
Enjoy yourself to your heart’s content and cast dull care aside,
For you’ll be the happiest bullocky’s wife on the blooming
Queensland side.
