Where The Tarwin Flows Down To The Sea Poem by Francis Duggan

The grey butcherbird he is piping on high branch of old grey gum tree
In a paddock in that flat coastal country where the Tarwin slowly flows to the sea
Between Inverloch and Tarwin Lower away from the traffic and noise
No factory chimneys in these parts of Gippsland puffing black smoke to pollute the skies.

The black tribes they lived around Tarwin long before the Europeans came
Long before this flat coastal country was christened with an English name
They had their own name for this country and in Nature's wild kingdom ranged free
And they hunted and fished and lived happy where the Tarwin flows down to the sea.

Man has changed the face of this landscape from what it was in long by gone days
In the flat and wide paddocks of Gippsland the introduced ruminants graze
But the Tarwin as ever flows onwards and it will flow forever more
Through the paddocks of Southern Gippsland on it's way to the Pacific shore.

The magpie's song heralds the morning as dawn's lamp is brightening the sky
In this old and beautiful country where Nature's beauty meets the eye
And where ever my travels take me to the memories will remain with me
Of that place that I love in South Gippsland where the Tarwin flows down to the sea.