In The Land Of The Pale Eyed Crow Poem by Francis Duggan

In the bright afternoon sunshine the saltpans white as snow
Are gleaming like large saucepans where only saltbush grow
A Land of an ancient Indigenous history though little of that we can claim to know
By the salt lakes of the Coorong in the land of the pale eyed crow
The pale eyed ravens cawing on the dead and stunted trees
And the landscape looking parched and bare from the sunshine and coastal breeze
This land has inspired artists to sketch and writers to story and rhyme
It was a very old land even in the Dreaming-time
Under the salt and sand where the saltbush grow the bones of the tribal people lay
One can even sense their spirits in this Countryside today
They were the first caretakers of this great Southern Land
And their ways and their cultures beyond us to understand
Perhaps their spirits live today in the dark pale eyed crow
Who caws loudly on the dead gum tree where only saltbush grow.