On the Wallaby Track 79 



part in wrecking the swagman's health. Many 

 end their days in the country hospitals, which are 

 so largely supported by collections taken up at 

 every shearing-shed, and to which the swagman 

 has usually contributed generously at some time 

 in his career. Even the old age pension, which 

 the needy who are past work can obtain in some 

 of the Australian States, is not for the swagman, 

 whose wanderings from state to state deprive him 

 of the right to claim this dole. 



In spite of the hardships and disadvantages of 

 the life, however, the swagman may be found on 

 every road and track in Australia. He is an ob- 

 ject of suspicion, and liable at any moment to find 

 himself accused of some crime of which he may 

 not even have heard. He is accounted the cause 

 of all bush fires, and is judged by the worst 

 specimens of his class and not by the average. 

 And yet, having once learned the fascination of 

 the open road, it never loses its charm for him. I 

 have an old friend, settled now in a pleasant town 

 on the Victorian coast, with money in the bank, 

 won by him on the Western Australian goldfields. 

 To use his own term, he is ' 'an independent man." 

 But when spring comes, and old Ben gets a whiff 

 of the bursting wattle, the call of the open road 

 proves irresistible. He says he must go and have 

 a look at the country, and accordingly greases his 

 bluchers and rolls his swag, and with a whistle to 

 his dog, is off afoot. A month later, he comes 

 back looking younger, and full of bush tidings. 



