AustLit

This work was first published in The Western Champion (Parkes, N.S.W.). The poem appeared untitled in The Queenslander of 10 April 1897 (p. 790) . Notably, The Queenslander version consisted of the first two verses that appeared in the 1901 edition of Fair Girls and Grey Horses, (the version which has appeared in subsequent anthologies, etc.), and a somewhat different final verse. It is unclear whether or not The Queenslander version represented the complete poem as it stood at the time, and given the surviving record for The Western Champion appears to date from January 1898, this point might be difficult to resolve. The final verse from The Queenslander version is as follows :

Let them spell from Free Trade and Protection/And Give Federation a rest,/For the matter that wants their inspection/is waiting out here in the West/And the law that the country requires/At the hands of her Statesmen of sense/Is a law to abolish the liars/That can sit a roughback - 'on the fence.'