In Distant South Australia Poem by Francis Duggan

In distant South Australia where the Murray waters flow
Through Tailem Bend and Murray Bridge so wide and deep and slow
She pines for her young lover who left her in the early Spring
When grey shrike thrush the familiar bird his familiar song did sing.

He promised to write to her but for the letter she still wait
She doesn't have an address for him he may be Interstate
And has he found another love that thought has crossed her mind?
Of never seeing or hearing from him again she almost feels resigned.

He left his lovely brown eyed Murray Rose with wavy golden hair
The wanderlust was in him for the bigger World out there
A handsome dark haired young man of twenty one year older than she
The far off hills and distant Towns he yearned for to see.

Where his travels have taken him to one could only hope to guess
He may be travelling north somewhere one of no fixed address
He may be in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane or Darwin or by the sea in Broome
In the north western tropics where the coastal banksias bloom.

In distant South Australia through the lands where saltbush grow
The mighty Murray River through the flat country flow
A young woman for a letter waits but her wait seems all in vain
From the lover she may not hear from nor may never see again.