"Tenterfield Saddler"

I don't know much about Australia, and when I was blundering about there in 2006, I figured I must have been crossing all sorts of historical paths, but didn't grasp the connections because I was a tourist.

Nevertheless, I spent a rainy night in Tenterfield: beautiful place! Goodness knows, the terrible drought year of 2006 provided little rain anywhere - except maybe in a few places like Tenterfield, on the New England Plateaus, where rainfall was about normal for the year.

Turns out, Tenterfield has a specific place in Australian song, as the hometown of singer/performer Peter Allen, who is best known in Australia for "Tenterfield Saddler", evoking his family's long history on that distant stretch of the New England highway. (And he married Liza Minelli? Odd, that.) The song is now an Australian favourite. It's nice to finally make that connection!

Lyrics:

The late George Woolnough
Worked on High Street
And lived on manors
52 years he sat on his veranda
And made his saddles
and if you had questions
About sheep or flowers or dogs
You just ask the saddler
He lived without sin
They're building a library for him

Time is a traveller
Tenterfield Saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead

The son of George Woolnough
Went off and got married
And had a war baby
But something was wrong
And it's easier to drink than go crazy
And if there were questions about why
The end was so sad
Well George had no answers about why a son
Ever have need of a gun

Time is a traveller
Tenterfield Saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead

The grandson of George
Has been all around the world
And lives in no special place
Changed his last name
And he married a girl with an interesting face
He'd almost forgotten them both
Because in the life that he leads
There's nowhere for George
And his library
Or the son with his gun
To belong
Except in this song

Time is a traveller
Tenterfield Saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead

Time is a medler
Tenterfield saddler make your bed
Fly away cockatoo
Down on the ground emu up ahead

Time is a tale teller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead

Time is a tale teller
Tenterfield saddler turn your head
Ride again Jackaroo
Think I see kangaroo up ahead