twelve o'clock
at night
We could n't stand the thought of clearin ' out for America , as Starlight advised us . It was like death to us , so we thought we 'd chance it somewhere in Australia for a bit longer . Now where we put up a good many drovers from Gippsland used to stay , as they brought in cattle from there . The cattle had to be brought over Swanston Street Bridge and right through the town after twelve o'clock at night . We 'd once or twice , when we 'd been out late , stopped to look at them , and watched the big heavy bullocks and fat cows staring and starting and slipping all among the lamps and pavements , with the street all so strange and quiet , and laughed at the notion of some of the shopkeepers waking up and seeing a couple of hundred wild cattle , with three or four men behind 'em , shouldering and horning one another , then rushing past their doors at a hard trot , or breaking into a gallop for a bit . Some of these chaps , seeing we was cattle-men and knew most things in that line , used to open out about where they 'd come from , and what a grand place Gippsland was -- splendid grass country , rivers that run all the year round , great fattening country ; and snowy mountains at the back , keeping everything cool in the summer . Some of the mountain country , like Omeo , that they talked a lot of , seemed about one of the most out-of-the-way places in the world .