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A 'waler' is a bushman who is 'on the loaf. He 'humps his drum, or 'swag, and starts on the wallaby track; i.e., shoulders the bundle containing his worldly belongings, and goes out pleasuring. A 'shanty, originally a low public-house, now denotes any tumble-down hut.
After a meal from the wallaby, the two men asked him if he would join them in a plan they had of getting away from the country; he was just the man, they said, being a sailor, who could bring the attempt to a successful issue. Then they told him that, many weeks previously, they had found a whale-boat lying capsized on the beach some miles away, and that she was perfectly sound.
He was reminded that he was a good fellow, and that one of the members of the camp was notoriously a rogue. "Mootee go along a you, all asame place? That fella no good. You good fella." "Yes," he answered. "All one track me fella go. Good track blenty tchugar-bag, blenty hegg, blenty wallaby, close up. You no wan' run about. Catch 'em blenty close up. Bi'mby me go long way.
When Bill returned with the old-man lashed on his horse's back, he found Finn affectionately licking the black hound's muzzle. Jess had not moved an inch. Wallaby Bill showed himself a kind and shrewd nurse where Jess, his one intimate friend, was concerned.
"It's little you needed to know then, or need to know now, Shon, my friend. I'm Duke Lawless to you here and henceforth, as ever I was then, on the wallaby track." And Shon believed him. The glasses were ready. "I'll give the toast," said the Honourable with a gentle gravity. "To Shon McGann and his Tobogan Ride!" "I'll drink to the first half of it with all my heart," said Sir Duke.
Then Pip got up and, strolled about a little to relieve his feelings, coming back in a second with a white, scared face. "He's on the boat," he said, in a horrified whisper. "Where-where where? what what what?" Judy cried, unintentionally mimicking a long-buried monarch. "In the cabin, looking as glum as a boiled wallaby, and hanging on to the poor little General as if he thinks he'll fly away."
Travelling with the swag in Australia is variously and picturesquely described as "humping bluey," "walking Matilda," "humping Matilda," "humping your drum," "being on the wallaby," "jabbing trotters," and "tea and sugar burglaring," but most travelling shearers now call themselves trav'lers, and say simply "on the track," or "carrying swag." And there you have the Australian swag.
Natives' smokes and footprints seen. Weakened camels. Native well. Ten days' waterless march. Buzoe's grave. A region of desolation. Eagles. Birds round the well. Natives hovering near. Their different smokes. Wallaby. Sad Solitude's triumphant reign. The Alfred and Marie range once more. The Rawlinson range and Mount Destruction. Australia twice traversed. Fort McKellar. Tyndall's Springs.
Pretty Pierre remarked nonchalantly in reply, "The wallaby track eh what is that, Shon?" "It's a bit of a haythen y' are, Pierre. The wallaby track?
As there is no record of the Dutch having visited the northern group, it is impossible to say whether wallaby were then found on it or not. How they could have got there is a mystery, as there were no large floating masses likely to have carried them from the main.
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