'ARD TACK      From the singing of Phil Day
                   Melbourne Folk Club.

           D              G
Well I'm a shearer, yes I am,
      D                    A
And I shore 'em, sheep and lamb,
         D              G                 A
From the Woomera to the Darling Downs and back,
         D              G
And I've rung a shed or two
          D                   A
Where the fleece was tough as glue
         D                G          A      D
But I'll tell you where I struck me 'ardest tack.



Well I was up Woolandra way,
Killing time from day to day
While the big sheds started moving further out,
When I struck a bloke, bechance,
That I summed up at a glance
As a cocky from the vineyards thereabouts.


Well it seems he picked me too,
'Cause that wasn't hard to do -
A pair of tongs was hanging out me hip.
"Well I've got a mob", he said,
"A mob about three hundred head,
"And I'll give a 10 pound note to have the clip".


Well I said I'd take the stand,
For it meant getting in me hand,
And by nine o'clock I'd rounded up the mob
In a shed sunk in the ground
With wine-casks all around,
And there it was I started at me job.


I took it easy for a bit,
While me hand was getting fit,
And by dinner time I'd done some half-a-score
With the cocky picking-up
And handing me a cup
Of Pinky after every sheep was shore.


Well about the seventh day
The cocky had to go away
After showing me the kind of casks to use,
Then I'd do the picking-up
And I'd manipulate the cup,
Wandering 'round them wine-casks just to pick and choose.


Then I'd stagger to the pen,
I'd grab a sheep and start again,
With a noise between a hic-cup and a sob...
And sometimes I'd fall asleep
With me arms around a sheep,
Worn and weary from me over-arduous job.


Well, six weeks at last went by,
And I gave a heartly sigh
As I kicked the last old cobbler out the door.
I gathered in that cocky's pay,
And I staggered on me way
From the hardest bloody shed I ever shore!