Mack an' me was trampin' mates from Mulga to the sea;
I won't say what I done for him, or what he done for me;
But Mack an' me was trampin' mates on many an outside track —
I thought that we'd be mates for life, misunderstandin' Mack.

We tramped from Hell to Hungerford an' shore on the Paroo,
We battled on the tucker tracks, an' done some drovin', too.
We poked up bullicks in the trucks from Hell to Nevermine,
An' worked from Mallacoota once to Eden, drovin' swine.

The yows go gossipin' ahead with all the lies they hear —
The station scandals that outstink the old rams in the rear.
The pigs come gruntin' up the track, old pig-mates two by two,
An' stick together 'till they're pork, like human mates should do.

But pigs at large is gentlemen, an' pigs at large is clean;
They don't go in for politics nor treat an old mate mean.
I little dreamed, the times we tramped by sandy plain or beach,
That Mack, the days we didn't tramp, was makin' up a speech.

A puppy politician then, an' now that he is up,
A pup without the gratitude or mateship of a pup.
We put him high in Parliament as " straight " , and find him now
A cow without the usefulness and patience of a cow.

I'm weak an' ill an' down without the spirit of a louse:
I'm lyin' in the hospital; he's lyin' in the House —
For Mack is now a Minister, the Minister of Skite:
I heard that he was dinin' with the Prince of Wales last night.

He's travelled round the world to learn " conditions " everywhere;
He ain't bin down in Sydney slums to learn " conditions " there.
He's travelled " sleeper " and " saloon " for weeks, but, I'll be sworn,
His mind ain't travelled half a mile from Glebe, where he was born.

I wrote to Mack three weeks ago, and simply called him Mack,
An' asked him for a quid or two to put me on the track;
I said when I got out of here I'd soon be fit for work,
An' mentioned that I'd heard the drought was pretty bad round Bourke.

I've got an answer from a bloke he keeps about the place
To tell me that the Minister's " considerin' me case " !...
Me an' Mack was battlin' mates, in battlin' days Outback —
And so I lay awake to-night considerin' of Mack.