Where The Powlett River Flow Poem by Francis Duggan

Her hair dark as the raven's wing and her eyes blue as the sloe
And she lives near Kilcunda where the Powlett river flow
And darkens and deepens and moves slowly as it nears it's destiny
On it's last mile to salt water to the great Pacific sea.

Along with her parents in their early forties in a bungalow she reside
And on calm nights from her bedroom she can hear the rising tide
Roll and grumble in the distance surging up the rocky shore
And the ocean at it's angriest when the breakers start to roar.

She has spent all of her years in Kilcunda and next year she turns nineteen
And the World out there awaits her and there's so much she has not seen
And the wanderlust is in her in Kilcunda she won't stay
For she yearns for distant places and big cities far away.

The spirit of adventure in her young heart beating strong
And when Spring returns to Gippsland and the magpie's in full song
She will take leave of Kilcunda for the bigger World out there
For wanderlust is at it's strongest when Spring is in the air.

And in one of the big cities she now dreams of in a Land beyond the sea
In the not too distant future she may raise her family
And she will tell her children stories of the life she used to know
In her old Homeplace in Kilcunda where the Powlett river flow.