Over the Ranges and Into the West
Over the Ranges and Into the West - meaning Summary
Bush Preferred Over City
The speaker rejects praise for coastal life and celebrates the Australian bush and Outback as home. Remembering wild boyhood, he prefers riding to cattle and sheep stations, the solitude of long roads, and the matey greetings of strangers. The poem contrasts rural hardship and drought with the emptiness and anxiety of city life, arguing that freedom, familiarity, and honest toil make the West more desirable than urban comforts.
Read Complete AnalysesLet others sing praise of their sea-girted isles, But give me the bush with its limitless miles; Then it’s over the ranges and into the West, To the scenes of wild boyhood; we love them the best. We’ll ride and we’ll ride from the city afar, To the plains where the cattle and sheep stations are; Where stockmen ride hard, and the drover starts forth On his long, lonely journey ’way up in the North. When your money is low, and your luck has gone down, There’s no place so lone as the streets of a town; There’s nothing but worry, and dread and unrest, So we’ll over the ranges and into the West. The drought in the West may spread ruin around, But the dread drought of life in the city is found; And I’d far sooner tread on the long dusty way, Where each one you meet says, Good day, mate, good day.
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