Ten Thousand Miles Away is the traditional Australian song, but the composer of the song is unknown.
What the words mean
- Cobb & Co. ~ company pioneered road transport in Australia. Their horse-drawn coaches carried passengers and mail from 1853 to the 1920s. The company was formed by Freeman Cobb and a group of fellow Americans. Cobb sold his shares in the company three years later, but they kept the name.
- Roma – southern Queensland town
- Barcoo ~ located in far north Queensland
- nardoo ~ an Australian swamp fern (Marsilea drummondii) with clover-like fronds. The large fruiting bodies (sporocarps) found at the base can be ground into a paste to make a type of bread.
Hurrah for the Roma railway! Hurrah for Cobb and Co.,
And oh! for a good fat horse or two to carry me Westward Ho —
To carry me Westward Ho! my boys, that’s where the cattle stray
On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.
Then give your horses rein across the open plain,
We’ll ship our meat both sound and sweet, nor care what some
folks say;
And frozen we’ll send home the cattle that now roam
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too, a thousand miles away.
Knee-deep in grass we’ve got to pass – for the truth I’m bound
to tell —
Where in three weeks the cattle get as fat as they can swell —
As fat as they can swell, my boys; a thousand pounds they weigh,
On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.
Then give your horses rein across the open plain,
We’ll ship our meat both sound and sweet, nor care what some
folks say;
And frozen we’ll send home the cattle that now roam
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too, a thousand miles away.
No Yankee hide e’er grew outside such beef as we can freeze;
No Yankee pastures make such steers as we send o’er the seas —
As we send o’er the seas, my boys, a thousand pounds they
weigh —
From the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo, a thousand miles away.
Then give your horses rein across the open plain,
We’ll ship our meat both sound and sweet, nor care what some
folks say;
And frozen we’ll send home the cattle that now roam
On the far Barcoo and the Flinders too, a thousand miles away.
