Stringybark Creek (The Ballad of Ned Kelly)

The sergeant and three constables rode up from Mansfield town

Near the end of last October for to hunt the Kellys down

They headed for the wombat hills and thought it quite a lark

To be camped along the borders of a creek called Stringybark

Scanlon and the sergeant rode away to search the scrub

Leaving MacEntire and Lonigan in camp to cook the grub

Ned Kelly and his comrades came to take a nearer look

For being short of flour they wished to interview the cook

The troopers at a stump alone they were well pleased to see

Watching as the billy boiled to make their pints of tea

They joked and chatted gaily never thinking of alarm

Till they heard the dreaded cry behind "

Bail out, throw down your arms"

The traps they started wildly, Mac then firmly stood

While Lonigan made tracks to gain the cover of the wood

Bro Kelly muttered sadly as he loaded up his gun

"Oh what a flaming pity that the bastards tried to run"

Later in the afternoon the sergeant and his mate

Came riding blindly through the bush to meet a cruel fate

"The Kellys have the drop on you" cried MacEntire aloud

But the troopers thought it was a joke and set their horses without

Trooper Scanlon made a move his rifle to unsling

But to his heart a bullet sped and death was in its sting

And Kennedy leapt from his mount and ran for company

And bravely fought until the last for all that he held dear

MacEntire his life at stake rode off from Mansfield town

He broke the news that made men vow to shoot the Kellys down

So from that hour the Kelly gang was hunted far and wide

Until the day they died