The Outside Track

There were ten of us there on the moonlit quay,    And one on the for’ard hatch;

No straighter mate to his mates than he    Had ever said: ‘Len’s a match!’"’Twill be long, old man, ere our glasses clink,    ’Twill be long ere we grip your hand!"—And we dragged him ashore for a final drink    Till the whole wide world seemed grand.             For they marry and go as the world rolls back,                They marry and vanish and die;            But their spirit shall live on the Outside Track                As long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist    That rolled from the waters green;

And over the railing we grasped his fist    As the dark tide came between.

We cheered the captain and cheered the crew,    And our mate, times out of mind;

We cheered the land he was going to    And the land he had left behind.

We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell,    But my heart seemed out of joint;

I well remember the hush that fell    When the steamer had passed the

We drifted home through the public bars,    We were ten times less by

Who sailed out under the morning stars,    And under the rising sun.

And one by one, and two by two,    They have sailed from the wharf since then;

I have said good-bye to the last I knew,    The last of the careless men.

And I can’t but think that the times we had    Were the best times after all,

As I turn aside with a lonely glass    And drink to the bar-room wall.             But I’ll try my luck for a cheque Out Back,                Then a last good-bye to the bush;            For my heart’s away on the Outside Track,                On the track of the steerage push.

The header graphic is by an unknown photographer and shows International passenger steamers moored along the wharves of Circular Quay in Sydney Harbour,

Australia, about 1905.

In the foreground are the ferry piers for cross-harbour passage to Manly and Watson Bay.

Charley Noble