"The Drover’s Ballad" lyrics

From the sunburned plains of far-off North Australia
Came a fella born to ride the wide, brown land
Oh, he grew up runnin' wild
But soon, by all, was styled
As the country's greatest-ever drovin' man

Oh, his legend rode the winds from Broome to Darwin
They loved and loathed him right from end to end
For when the drover gave his heart
To a girl whose skin was dark
From that day on, he was no white man's friend

So goes The Drover's story, you'll hear it near and far
And in the end, it's all he'll ever own
It says, "The outcast is a free man
If he sleeps under the stars
Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home"

Then they called him up to fight for Mother England
In a far-off war that spilled his brothers' blood
Inside the jaws of Hell
Where both his brothers fell
He just watched his faith in man die in the mud

There was no hero's welcome for The Drover
Just a country that had turned its back on him
When he came home from the war
His sick wife, they were not pure
They let her die for the colour of her skin

So goes The Drover's story, you'll hear it near and far
And in the end, it's all he'll ever own
It says, "The outcast is a free man
If he sleeps under the stars
Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home"

The Drover is a man of constant shadows
Haunted by his pain, his past, and name
For every mile he rides
What he cannot hide
Is the longing in his heart to love again

So goes The Drover's story, you'll hear it near and far
And in the end, it's all he'll ever own
It says, "The outcast is a free man
If he sleeps under the stars
Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home"

Makes the blanket of the southern skies his home
His home