Inverloch In Late February Poem by Francis Duggan

The flowering gum is cloaked in bright red flowers and butcherbird pipes on a blackwood tree
The sunshine bright the day is rather warm and a freshening breeze is blowing up from the sea
Old Inverloch is quiet this time of year few holidaymakers as Summer nears her close
Only a few days left in February and the rose bush wears her last fading rose.

The silver and the pacific gulls are preening on the beach and nobody swimming or sunbathing today
The country beaches quiet this time of year though from the Melbourne suburbs some still come for the weekend stay,
The magpie's flute is echoing in the park and beautiful eastern rosellas chirping as they fly
And brown spotted butterflies around the banksias flit a thing of beauty is a thing of joy.

These coastal lands of the ancient Bunurong the tribes who lived here centuries ago
They fished and hunted here in Gippsland South though of their culture white Australians little know
For thousands of years before white people gave Inverloch it's name they fished and hunted here for wallaby and roo
And Mother Nature they treated with respect and they loved Nature more than I or you.

The Summer days are drawing to a close and Inverloch is quiet in late February
Yet Beautiful the bright red as blood flowers that bloom in clusters on the flowering gum tree
The magpie's flute is echoing in the park on this pleasant and rather sunny day
And one last dying rose clinging to rose bush it's withered petals fading to decay.