Aussie Vernacular
The poem is, in part, a celebration of national pride for Australia and as such the opening imagery is one that strongly situates it within that history. “Humping bluey,” “on the wallaby” and “hear ‘er cooey” are all Aussie patois easily enough understood by residents, but likely incomprehensible to non-natives. The fact that Lawson creates a disconnect of incomprehensibility strongly indicates the target audience. This is a poem about Australia for Australians. To ease the incomprehensibility for those not so targeted, “humping bluey” refers to carrying a roll of blankets for outdoor sleeping, “on the wallaby” is slang for being on the move and not tied down and “cooey” refers to what those in the outback would yell out to get someone’s attention.
Anti-British Sentiment
Freedom is the underlying theme of the poem and part of Australia’s sense of freedom is breaking from the British. The second stanza engages imagery to provide insight into the poet’s view toward the part English society actually played in the settling of Australia. Those who made their way to Australia were poor; some continued to toil for low wages while others were moved to crime by the lazy upper class unwilling to distribute their wealth equitably. Those who worked hard eventually gave up and made the decision to seek a better life in Australia while those moved to crime were sent against their will. Either way, Australia represents a population of workers versus loafers.
Hardship in the Outback
Part of the national identity to which Lawson is appealing is the concept of Australians as a hardy people who turned their back on the luxuries of life back in England to build a better alternative. By the time he wrote the poem, most of non-indigenous population of Australia were already living in urban areas, but imagery is manifested with the intent to tie even city-dwellers to the sturdy pioneer spirit. Reference is made to this hardship through the concerted use of “parents” even though many were citizens were separated from the pioneer stock by more than one generation. Through hard physical labor these parents transformed a hardscrabble outback into a garden. Most importantly, they managed to do this without being surrounded by members of the British aristocracy in a sharp big of imagery that succinctly democratizes Australian freedom while also lampooning the utter useless of the loafer class left behind.
Sedition Through Imagery
The poem’s concluding bit of imagery was enough to nearly get the poet arrested for sedition. We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting O’ those that they would throttle; They needn’t say the fault is ours If blood should stain the wattle! The talk of tyrants feeling the sting would likely have been enough to ruffle the feathers of the conservative establishment against which the poem rails, but the implied threat of physical force used against them which might shed blood over Australia (the wattle being a symbol of the country as its national flower) was more than enough for one overly zealous political opponent of Lawson’s to publicly accuse him of inciting an insurrection and briefly led to the poet going underground to avoid charges of sedition against the government.
