"The Drover's Boy" is a song by

Ted Egan Edward Joseph Egan (born 6 July 1932) is an Australian folk musician and a former public servant who served as Administrator of the Northern Territory from 2003 to 2007. Early life Egan was born in Coburg, Victoria, moving to the Northern Ter ...

Book

Ted wrote a book based on the story of the song; ''The Drover's Boy'' (2000) The jacket description reads: :"Based on a song of the same name and set in the 1920s, The Drover's Boy recalls the time when it was illegal for Caucasians and Aborigines to marry, and the death of an Aborigine went unnoticed by the white community. This popular and moving Australian folk song comes from a true story about a Caucasian drover (the Australian name for a cowboy or sheep herder) who is forced to pass off his Aboriginal wife as his "drover's boy". Ted Egan wrote this song as a tribute to the Aboriginal stockwomen, in the hope that one day their enormous contribution to the Australian pastoral industry might be recognized and honored. Ages 11+."

Compilations and cover versions

* Amanda Palmer performed ''The Drover's Boy'' on her 2020 Album ''Forty Five Degrees Bushfire Charity Flash Record''. * ''The Drover's Boy'' (Ted Egan singer) was one track on this compilation album. * John Williamson performed ''The Drover's Boy'' on his 1989 album ''Warragul''. This track won for him the 'Heritage Award' at the Country Music Awards of Australia in 1990.

Bibliography

''The Drover's Boy'' has been collected in: * * (text by Peter Forrest ; foreword by Dame

Mary Durack Dame Mary Durack (20 February 1913 – 16 December 1994) was an Australian author and historian. She wrote ''Kings in Grass Castles'' and ''Keep Him My Country''. Childhood Mary Durack, born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Michael Patrick ...

; musical notation by Erik Kowarski ; cover illustration, Bill Gwydir on the Birdsville Track, by Robert Wettenhall, 1983.) and inspired a series of paintings: * Bob Marchant was winner of

Sir John Sulman Prize The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Galler ...

in 1988 and joint winner in 1987. and a stage production: *

Movie

Ted saw a potential movie in the story of ''The Drover's Boy'' and commissioned Cinevest Limited to find potential backers. A prospectus was issued in 1995 The funds raised by Cinevest and Ted Egan personally, after pre-production costs were sufficient to capture extensive footage of outback cattle movements on high quality film, but insufficient to guarantee completion of the full-length movie, so the project was abandoned.

References

External links

Ted Egan singing the song on youtube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drovers Boy John Williamson (singer) songs 1993 songs