Old Dan The Shearer

He shore sheep in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia the sheep shearing man
For close to fifty years of time quite a span
In Renmark in South Australia by the great Murray River his journey in life began
And all he has left now are the memories of his youthful elan

I met him in a pub in Adelaide a few years ago
Old Dan the Shearer time had become his foe
With silvery tousled hair and a brown craggy face
In the Flagstaff Hotel he did seem out of place

For one in his mid seventies he looked healthy and strong
To an endangered breed of people his kind does belong
As we sat by the pub counter stories from his life to me he did relate
One who had shorn with the best of them and farewelled many a mate

He never did father children or never did have a wife
But he had made love to many women in his life
Time passes and men grow old as the wise one did say
And he lives in a one bedroom rented flat in Adelaide today

Quite casually dressed in open neck brown shirt, blue jeans and brown shoes
A man who had traveled and worked hard and drunk heaps of booze
One who knew that for some to win others have to lose
But he surely did enjoy the hard life he did choose

In shearing sheds from southern Queensland down to Victoria near Ballarat
He had shorn with the best had been there and done that
As we shook hands in parting i knew we would never meet again
But good memories of old Dan the Shearer with me does remain.