“Stir the Wallaby Stew”
Description
Dad's in jail, Mother unfaithful, the sheep are dead, the farm's for sale. Dad gets out, sees this, and goes back to jail. Chorus: "So stir the wallaby stew, Make soup of the kangaroo tail, I tell you things is pretty tough Since Dad got put in jail."
Notes
John Greenway writes of this piece, "Australia's Tobacco Roaders (without the sexual propensities of Jeeter Lester's relatives) are the delightful family of Dad and Dave and the other residents of Shingle Hut -- Mother, Mabel, Sal, Dan, Joe, and Cranky Jack.
Originally the creation of the first great Australian humorist, Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis) in his books _On Our Selection_ and _Our New Selection_, Dad and Dave were the archetype of the hard-working but hard-luck free selectors... but the characters were taken away from him and became progressively more lazy and stupid....
"Wallaby Stew" is a shameful example of the degeneration of the Rudd family (as the tune is a degeneration of the "Bungaree" melody), but it represents an important area of Australian folklore." - RBW
Recordings
- John Greenway, "Wallaby Stew" (on JGreenway01)
References
- Hodgart, p. 234, "Stir the Wallaby Stew" (1 text)
- Roud #8242
- BI, Hodg234