When the Rain Tumbles Down in July

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 bed And the clouds veil 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 As the breeze from the south races by And the limbs from the old gums are falling When the rain tumbles down in July The old sleeping gums by the river Awaken to herds straying by From the flats where the fences have vanished As the storm clouds gather on high The wheels of the wagons stop turning And the stock horse is turned out to stray And the old station dogs are a-dozing On the husks in the barn through the day The drover draws rein by the river It?s been years since he's seen it so high And that's just a story of homeward When the rain tumbles down in July