ABC Wednesday, Australia, H for Home

There are several expressions about our home:
My home is my castle!
Home is home be it ever so homely!
All indicating that the best place on earth is Home!!
Well the song you are going to hear is the wish of an Australian man 
telling us what his idea of an ideal home should be. 

© 1975 MUSHROOM MUSIC PTY LTD

I've been around the world A couple of times or maybe more I've seen the sights, I've had delights On every foreign shore But when my mates all ask me The place that I adore I tell them right away Chorus Give me a home among the gumtrees With lots of plum trees A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo A clothesline out the back Verandah out the front And an old rocking chair You can see me in the kitchen Cooking up a roast Or Vegemite on toast Just you and me, a cup of tea And later on, we'll settle down And go out on the porch And watch the possums play Chorus There's a Safeways up the corner And a Woolies down the street And a brand new place they've opened up Where they regulate the heat But I'd trade them all tomorrow For a little bush retreat Where the kookaburras call. Chorus

Some people like their houses With fences all around Others live in mansions And some beneath the ground But me I like the bush you know With rabbits running round And a pumpkin vine out the back

 Chorus( 2x)


The song has become one of the most frequently recorded Australian compositions of all time and is a standard in Australian folk music. A variety of artists have covered it, ranging from bushbands like Paradiddle to international superstar violinist André Rieu ( Dutch!), who included it on his 2008 album Waltzing Matilda. John Williamson performed Gumtrees at the 2006 memorial service to commemorate popular Australian wildlife expert and TV personality Steve Irwin; the program was followed by a worldwide television audience reputedly numbering 300 million viewers.

 We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar . This week we are looking for words    beginning with H.