Key of C#  Capo +1 on guitar and play these chord-shapes.
   C F Am C F C G C
C                Am               C             G
Riding down from Queensland on a dirty timber train,           
C             F        A    Am      G     G7      C
We stopped to take on water in the early morning rain,

I saw a hobo coming by, he didn't show much fear,
He walked along the line of trucks, saying any room in here.

Then I pulled the cover back saying throw your blankets in,
He dropped his billy and his roll and socked me on the chin.

They took me to the jailhouse, they got me in the cells,
I realised then who he was, it was not hard to tell.

 Chorus
     I wish that I was fourteen stone and I was six feet tall,
     I'd take a special trip up north, to beat up Sergeant Small.

I've worked for Jimmy Sharman, and at fighting I'm no dunce,
But let me see the fellow who can take on five at once.

 Chorus
    I wish that I was fourteen stone and I was six feet tall,
    I'd take a special trip up north, to beat up Sergeant Small.

Sergeant Small

In the 1930s depression years, many men on the dole were obliged to travel the country searching for work as they had to collect their dole from different locations. With virtually no money, there were really only two ways to effect this travel - by walking or by jumping a goods train.


There was a constant effort by both the state police and the railway police to deter these free-travelling swagmen. Their usual technique was to intermittently board and comprehensively search trains. Sometimes the swagmen were arrested and other times they would be forced off the train in remote areas.

Sergeant Small, a well-known police officer stationed at Roma in south-west Queensland would kit himself out as a swagman trying to find some space on a goods train for himself and he'd surreptitiously approach each goods wagon and ask if there was any room inside. Many a concealed swagman would answer back and thus give himself up.

In 1938, the multi-talented New Zealand country and western singer then in Australia, Tex Morton, decided to write a song about Sergeant Small and it got a lot of airplay. But Sergeant Small's threats to sue resulted in the song being withdrawn from both broadcast and sale.

Origins and variations

Morton seems have adapted his story from a 1933 poem by Terry Boylan, How I took the Bait, and Australian folk singers who can't yodel have combined the verses of Morton and Boylan to create this longer version of Sergeant Small.

Tex Morton

Born Robert Lane, in Nelson in 1916, died Dr. Robert Morton PhD in Sydney in 1983.

He lived a life of breath-taking achievement, attaining fortune and fame in several careers: a recording star (300 songs), singer-songwriter, stage artist (touring sensation in North America, Europe, Australasia), circus entrepreneur, best-selling comic writer, Hollywood screen actor, and with a Doctorate from McGill University, a world authority and renowned performer of hypnotherapy.

A Maori neighbour taught him his first guitar chords and he became so obsessed with music that, at the age of 14, (in 1930) he ran away from home and busked on the streets. When asked one day by the town’s policemen if his name was Bobby Lane, he noticed a nearby garage sign that gave the name of ‘Morton’ and said he was Bob Morton, an entertainer. Morton worked on various jobs, including one with a travelling troupe.

Later in 1932, he moved to Australia and worked with travelling shows, where, in addition to singing, he worked as a magician, a boxing booth fighter, with wild animals,  and even rode as a Wall Of Death rider. In 1934, with a repertoire of Australian bush ballads as well as the early country songs that he had heard on record, he moved to Sydney. He undertook whatever jobs he could find, including going to sea as a stoker. After eventually winning a talent show, he made his first recordings in February 1936. But he was broke and returned to New Zealand....

....to discover his records were selling in their thousands, and he was a nationally known star! By 1939 he was traveling with his own circus/rodeo, where apart from singing, he entertained with trick shooting, fancy riding, a memory act and magic.

In 1949, Morton decided to move to the USA, having by then learned an act using hypnotism as well as his other talents. After spending two years as a singer and actor, he began to appear as The Great Doctor Robert Morton - the World’s Greatest Hypnotist. In 1951, he toured the USA and Canada with his one-man show on which he sang, did recitations, trick shooting, mind reading and hypnotism. He proved so popular that he set attendance records in many cities.

He returned to Australia in 1965 and appeared on television and in Australian films, and although he often tried to leave out the old hillbilly and yodeling songs, the public would not let him. It is estimated that during his long career he recorded over 1,000 songs and had many major national hits. More.