It’s a Way of Life Songtext
von John Williamson

Real country people in their prime
Living in New South on Queensland time
He′s a stockman, likes raising sheep
Likes raising children, don't get much sleep
On the shady big verandah with his hard working wife
Three young sidekicks, it′s a way of life

Some years they make it, some years they don't
Sometimes the creek flows, sometimes it won't
Sometimes he′s mean, he′s got a gun
When the ewes are lambing he's got pigs on the run
Out in the lignum on the watercourse
You could lose a pigdog, you could lose a horse


Think you ought to know the channel′s coming through
Wiping out the bushland and the kangaroo
Greedy men with water rights to neutralise the land
When's it gonna stop, I just don′t understand
With cotton in their ears and dollars in their eyes
Their banker grins and our country dies

They love the bush, they grow the wool
They respect the land and it's beautiful
Blue bonnets, leatherheads and red-backed wrens
Fowl birds, ringnecks and water hens
Redwings and red-tailed black cockatoos
Think of all the rainbows we could lose

Real country people in their prime
Living in New South on Queensland time
He′s a stockman, likes raising sheep
Likes raising children, don't get much sleep
On the shady big verandah with his hard working wife
Three young sidekicks, it's a way of life