In Mt Eccles Poem by Francis Duggan

In Mt Eccles surrounded by wooded volcanic cliffs is green old Lake Surprise
That echo to the wood duck calls and the dusky moorhen cries
Along the cliffs above the lake gray gum and blackwood grow
From the look out deck the view is breath taking Nature's beauty is on show.

On the gum trees beyond the cliffs one hears the pied currawong
Crimson rosellas pipe and ravens caw and the magpies are in song
And the laughter of the kookaburras is carrying in the breeze
On a pleasant evening in the Fall just under twenty degrees.

Whoever called it Lake Surprise for it found an apt name
It had been around for centuries before the first white pioneers came
From old Mt Eccles volcanic hills hot lava once did flow
In the Indigenous Dreamtime many centuries ago.

Each time I visit Mt Eccles koalas I do see
On the manna gums by the track to the volcanic caves today I counted three
And grey kangaroos and wallabies in the wooded park abound
One can see and hear them hopping across the stony ground.