Joan Vaughan Taylor
They were busy at the homestead, so Red Riding’s mother said,
‘Take this damper to your gran’ dad—he’s in the shearing shed’.
So little Aussie red head skipped through the dry outback
Until she met a dingo who was looking for a snack.
‘Where are you going, little girl?’ the dingo asked the kid.
Red Riding was very brave (she’d heard what dingoes did).
‘I’m off to visit Grandpa, he’s clicking with the shears.
If you try to steal our tucker, he’ll snip off both your ears!’
Then she hurried through the spinifex to tell gran’ dad the worst,
But the dingo, like a greyhound, was bound to get there first.
He jumped upon the old man and knocked him to the floor
Just as red head caught him up and peered around the door.
She screamed in childish terror at what she saw within.
They heard her down at Gundagai, she kicked up such a din.
But Clancy of the Overflow was lolling on the fence.
He heard the lass cry out for help and leapt to her defence.
Flourishing his stockwhip, he gave that dog a fright
And rescued Grandpa Riding from a very nasty bite.
Then Mulga Bill, on bicycle, rode in to join the fray.
They had a dingo of a time that hot and dusty day.
The wool was flying in a storm, just like midwinter snow
Till the Man from Snowy River arrived by Cobb and Co.
If you believe this doggerel about the dingo lark
You’re as gullible and foolish as the Man from Ironbark.
