Australia Of The Dreamtime Poem by Francis Duggan

This is an old Land this Australia 'twas even old in the Dreamtime
It has been honoured in song and in story and has been honoured by bards in their rhyme
The Land of an old race of people and Australia's first ever race
For centuries beyond the Dreamtime their proud heritage they can trace.

The land of the wombat and wallaby, the echidna, koala and roo
The Land of lories and rosellas and the black and the white cockatoo,
The Land of emu and kookaburra and white backed magpie the songster supreme
And the platypus a freak of Nature one of the World's strangest 'twould seem.

A vast Land of wide open spaces the outback lands ravaged and brown
Where life can be so very lonely a hundred miles from the nearest Town
In the north east and north west of this great Land the weather is warm all year round
And in the waterways of the wild Northern Territory the dangerous saltwater crocodile abound.

The coastal towns and their great beaches this marvellous Land has everything
'Tis not of a young Land as some say but of an old Land that i sing
The artists have painted it's beauty this great Land by the southern sea
The home of people of all Nations and the home of the wild and the free.