The New Chum Shearer - Traditional

Key of G


G            D          G         D
The new chum toils with heart and soul

C                            G
Shearing the sheep to make a roll

C                      G    Em
Out in the back blocks far away

     G                     D   G
Then off to the city for a holiday

G                     D   G
Off to the city for a holiday


Chorus:  Last line of each verse

Verse 2
And down in the city he looks a swell
And catches a taxi to the Kent Hotel
The barmaid says, "My you look ill!
It must have been rough tucker Bill."

Verse 3
And down in the city he looks a goat,
In his Oxford bags and a Seymour coat.
He spends his money like a fool of course,
That he worked for like a flamin' horse.

Verse 4
And he shouts for all hands around the place,
And it's off to Randwick for the big horse race.
He dopes himself on back-ache pills
He talks high tallies and tucker bills.

Verse 5
Now his money's gone, he's stiff and sore
And the barmaid isn't so kind no more.
His erstwhile friends don't give a hoot,
So it's back to the bush, per what? the boot!

Verse 6
And his money's gone and he can't get booze,
And his socks are showing through his snake skin shoes,
He's lost his beautiful Seymour coat;
He's got no money - oh what a goat!

Verse 7
So he stands on the corner, cadging fags
With his shirt tails showing through his Oxford bags
And he camps in the bend in the wind and rain
And waits for the shearing to start again.

Verse 8
Now back o' Bourke where the flies are bad
He talks of the wonderful times he had
He boasts of the dozens of girls that he kissed
And he tells of the dozens of winners that he missed.

Verse 9
So all you fellas with a cheque to spend,
Don't go down to the city where you've got no friends,
Go to the nearest wayside shack
It's not so far when you've got to walk back!