Been There Before

There came a stranger to Walgett town,

To Walgett town when the sun was low,

And he carried a thirst that was worth a crown,

Yet how to quench it he did not know;

But he thought he might take those yokels down,

The guileless yokels of Walgett town.

They made him a bet in a private bar,

In a private bar when the talk was high,

And they bet him some pounds no matter how far

He could pelt a stone, yet he could not shy

A stone right over the river so brown,

The Darling River at Walgett town.

He knew that the river from bank to bank

Was fifty yards, and he smiled a smile

As he trundled down; but his hopes they sank,

For there wasn’t a stone within fifty mile;

For the saltbush plain and the open down

Produce no quarries in Walgett town.

The yokels laughed at his hopes o’erthrown,

And he stood awhile like a man in a dream;

Then out of his pocket he fetched a stone,

And pelted it over the silent stream –

He’d been there before; he had wandered down

On a previous visit to Walgett town.

Patersen seems to have had a thing about Walgett and con-men.He also wrote this amusing little poem on the same theme.http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/25619-A-B--Banjo-Paterson-A-Walgett-Episode