A Train Journey Poem by Francis Duggan

We left old Melbourne City in the darkness
And the northbound train stopped at each rural town
And a gray dawn broke as we neared outer Sydney
This Land now green has often been so brown.

Beyond Gosford the scenery was changing
We passed by coastal paddocks wide and green
This Land can be compared to a chameleon
It changes it's colours where the rains have been.

Through Wauchope and Nambucca Heads places of beauty
And as we neared Grafton it commenced to rain
To New South Wales on the first of September
The spring has brought it's greenery again.

Before we reached Casino night had fallen
It was a long day's journey into night
On through Lismore, Mullumbimby and through the cane country
Of Murwillumbah in the faint moonlight.

On to the last stop Murwillumbah station
And the memory with me will long remain
Of that train journey on the first of September
Through New South Wales made green by recent rain.