You might speculate she had a shanty selling the traditional Irish spirit ‘poteen’, brewed out of potatoes and rye. It’s rated as one of the strongest in the world with an alcohol content between 40-90%. If so, a dose would have made it tough to walk on from there to Queensland.
Over the border, to and fro,
Will Oglivie.
That’s where the footsore swagmen go.
Sick and tired of the endless strife,
Nursing the bones of a wasted life,
Where all the sorrows of earth are rife
Out at the back of Bourke.