Daley's Dorg Wattle (1898)
by William Thomas Goodge
1963647Daley's Dorg Wattle1898William Thomas Goodge
“You can talk about yer sheep dorgs,” said the man from Allan's Creek,
   “But I know a dorg that simply knocked 'em bandy!
Do whatever you would show him, and you'd hardly need to speak.
   Owned by Daley, drover cove in Jackandandy.

“We was talkin' in the parlor, me and Daley, quiet like,
   When a blow-fly starts a-buzzin' round the ceilin',
Up gets Daley, and he says to me, You wait a minute, Mike,
   And I'll show you what a dorg he is at heelin'.

“And an empty pickle-bottle was a-standin' on the shelf,
   Daley takes it down and puts it on the table,
And he bets me drinks that blinded dorg would do it by himself —
   And I didn't think as how as he was able!

“Well, he shows the dorg the bottle, and he points up to the fly,
   And he shuts the door, and says to him — ‘Now, Wattle!'
And in less than fifteen seconds, spare me days, it ain't a lie,
   That there dorg had got that inseck in the bottle?”

This work is in the public domain in Australia because it was created in Australia and the term of copyright has expired. According to Australian Copyright Council - Duration of Copyright, the following works are public domain:

  • published non-government works whose author died before January 1, 1955,
  • anonymous or pseudonymous works and photographs published before January 1, 1955, and
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This work is also in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), and it was first published before 1989 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities (renewal and/or copyright notice) and it was in the public domain in Australia on the URAA date (January 1, 1996). This is the combined effect of Australia having joined the Berne Convention in 1928, and of 17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.

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This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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