On Passing The Avenue Of Honour Poem by Francis Duggan

Near Ballarat the Avenue Of Honour
Stretch on either side of Ararat highway
To honour men who gave their lives in battle
For such an honour such big price to pay.

From Wendouree on either side of highway
For five to seven miles or maybe more
A plaque each tree for to honour the brave locals
Who died in battle on a foreign shore.

They paid too huge a price to be remembered
A name on steel plaque nailed to trunk of tree
They fought on foreign soil for their Australia
And gave their lives that others might live free.

Some of them did not leave the World with children
Whilst others left young children and young wife
They died for glory under flag of Britain
But is Britain and it's flag worth human life? .

In fact is any Country's flag worth dying for
And is any flag worth cup of human blood?
The war lords send young men to fight their battles
For their self interest not for moral good.

The men they fought against were total strangers
And yet they knew them as their enemy
And even still today man keep repeating
The past mistakes nor learn from history

It was said it was the war that would end all wars
But still the numbers of the war dead grow
And war and rumours of war keep on raging
Since that great battle sixty years ago.

Near ballarat the avenue of honour
Stretch for miles along the highway either side
A tree for each who died for their Australia
But was it for Australia that they died? .