WHEN THE RAIN TUMBLES DOWN IN JULY
(Slim Dusty)

Slim Dusty

Also recorded by:
The Bushwackers; Graeme Connors.
 
 
Let me wander north to the homestead
Way out further on there to roam,
By a gully in flood, let me linger
When the summery sunshine has flown.

Where the logs tangle up on the creek beds
And clouds fill the old northern sky
And the cattle move back from the lowlands.
When the rain tumbles down in July.

The settlers with sad hearts are watching
The rise of the stream from the dawn,
Their best crops are always in flood reach
If it rises much more they'll be gone.

The cattle string out along the fences,
The wind from the south races by,
And the limbs from the old gums have fallen,
When the rain tumbles down in July.

The sleeping gums on the hillside
Awaken to herds strayin'  by,
Here on the flats where the fences have vanished,
As the storm clouds gather on high.

The wheels of the wagons stop turning,
The stock horse is turned out to stray,
The old station dogs are a-dozin'
On the husks in the barn through the day.

The drover draws rein by the river
And it's years since he's seen it so high,
Yes, and that's just a story of homeward,
When the rain tumbles down in July. 


(Contributed by Shelley Botka - February 2006)