My father and others used to sing it here in Australia Just the other year I had to sing it at a lockdown in a pub in Dingle just down the road from Castlemaine and it took a few hours of thirsty discussion to get to an agreed understanding There s a few different versions and of course all insist theirs is the correct one The one I always heard was There was a wild colonial boy Jack Doolan was his name Of poor but honest parents He was born in a Castlemaine He was his father s only son his mother s pride and joy And dearly did his parents love the wild colonial boy At the tender age of sixteen years Jack left his native home And to Australia s sunny shores a bushranger did roam He robbed the lordly squatters and mumble something of their toys A terror to Australia was the wild colonial boy and so on