The River That Flows Upside Down Poem by Francis Duggan

It flows from the foot of Mt Baw Baw through many a Yarra Valley Town
The waterway known as the Yarra the river that flows upside down
It deepens and crawls at a snail's pace through Melbourne it always looks a muddy gray
The river that flows bottom to top I only quote what others say.

Named after a tribe of indigenous people who lived here till white people came
Their spirits will flow on forever in the river that carries their name
And just like the passing of the Seasons the people they come and they go
But the Yarra that flows down through Melbourne forever and ever will flow.

Old Yarra they say is polluted from chemicals washed into it by rain
As well as plastics, refuse and rubbish from many a pipeline and drain
Of late a rower who fell into the river swallowed water a near fatal intake
He ended up quite ill in hospital from the affects of a bad belly ache.

It is Humans gave the Yarra pollution but the river it still winds it's way
Through the great Southern City of Melbourne at a snail's pace it crawls night and day
To be named after a tribe of the first Australians is not it's only claim to renown
As it lives on in legend and folklore as the river that flows upside down.