The Last Frontier Lyrics - Redgum Anthology 1976-1986 - Redgum

There's a corrugated highway Leading north from Port Augusta 

lined with ratted cars that didn't rate a tow 

The Salt plains out of Pimba And your eyes begin to stream 

On to Kingoonya huddled dusty by the road 

Romantic notions shattered Like the tyres that didn't hack it 

This has got to be the country's last frontier 

Where a sports car's next to useless Running cattle grids and river beds 

We drove a van from 1963 

Someone mentioned walkabout And kiss your job goodbye 

Just to see the country shimmer through the windscreen 

Drinking beer, telling stories While laughter filled the night 

And flexi-time's behind you like a bad dream 

You got a flat on Anzac Highway And Lawson on your shelf 

Its a Southern Comfort, air-conditioned rage 

Where a homestead's more than just a cheap print Dangling from a wall 

And mateship's more than lines upon a page 

We went looking for Australia In between the TV lines 

'Cause the ABC just couldn't make it real 

Colour documentary From a beanbag on the floor: 

Never shows as much as it conceals 

A stark and blistered Alice Springs And a river runs with shame 

And you wipe the sheets of bulldust from your eyes 

Another country's uniform And the mirage it falls apart 

To the open gap between the truth and lies 

Go and see your country, mate The travel agents scream 

Politicians sell it's heart just for a past-time 

Signs and high-wire fences Hold the land where I belong 

It's as if I'm in the outback for the last time