What Was This Country Like Poem by Francis Duggan

What was this Country like before white people came
To the once Gondowondoland now Australia by name
Quite a different Country than it is today
New people bring with them changes in truth one can say

And what of the massacres and displacement of the Indigenous people we read of and hear about
That such things did take place there can be little doubt
The modern history of Australia has it's source in suffering, discrimination and bloodshed and tears
Some thing that has been denied by far too many for far too many years

In Australia today place names of extinct tribes no longer living there
Who became victims of settlers who came from elsewhere
And that extinction is forever is only too true
What many people receive from life is not always their due

What was this Country like going back two hundred and thirty years or so
In real time this is not that very long ago
Quite a different Country than it is today
That changes come at a huge cost to many people it does seemthis way