OUR OWN FLAG 1900                                

They mustered us up with a royal din,
    In wearisome weeks of drought.
Ere ever the half of the crops were in,
    Or half of the sheds cut out.

‘Twas down with saddle and spurs and whip
    The swagman dropped his swag.
And we hurried us off to an outbound ship
    To fight for the English flag.

The English flag - it is ours in sooth
    We stand by it wrong or right.
But deep in our hearts is the honest truth
    We fought for the sake of a fight.

And the English flag may flutter and wave
    Where the World-wide Oceans toss,
But the flag the Australian dies to save
    Is the flag of the Southern Cross.

If ever they want us to stand the brunt
    Of a hard-fought, grim campaign,
We will carry our own flag up to the front
    When we go to the wars again.