Where roll the worn Strezleckis 1
dreaming of mountain ash 2,
lyres 3 tryst shivery-feathered
wooing the watchful bush.
Where once the Gunaikurnai 4
light-walked through wet, dense trails -
sequestered lands surrender
to a lumbering travail.
Come away, dear child, this song
summons you from hustling throngs
come to limpid billabongs
here you never shall be wronged.
Where pale, penitent orchids
bow wimpled heads and pray,
wallabies hush-worship while
ephemeral fronds hold sway.
Where wandered - canoe-laden,
the pelican, Borun, 5
middens 6 lie, shell monuments
to the unforgotten ones.
Come away, poor child, this song
summons you from restive throngs
bathe in healing billabongs,
beneath sacred Kurrajongs 7.
Where Mimis 8 crouch, grass-hidden
and whisper, awaiting prey,
for they know well Man emu -
gloomphing, fussing comes this way.
And when stilted and suspicious
leathery legs hove into view,
delighted Mimi demons
erupt and ballyhoo.
Come away, dear one, this song
summons you from choking throngs
come to unspoiled billabongs
here your dreaming will be strong.
Where Parrot-peas sneak glances
in hide-and-seek array
and solicitous possums
with wattle babies play;
While kookaburras strident
in wit and beak and eyes
assess your dark withholdings
and acquit your self-sown lies.
Come away, sad one, this song
summons you from caustic throngs
come to wraith-like billabongs
and enchanting Currawongs 9.
I'll come with you and gladly
to where Time meaningless glides
till frantic, faceless worries
and all pointlessness subsides.
Where growling frogs fall silent
as soft mists dissipate and
reticent night dwellers veer home
when dark sighs into day.
Come away from cruel concerns
from the soulless concrete cairns
cast off a life stillborn
open heart and mind relearn.
1 South Gippsland mountain range.
2 Mountain ash - Tall, straight, regal trees that populate the high country and are often logged.
3 Lyres - lyrebirds - Their tail feathers form the shape of a classical lyre. The image also deliberately evokes Arcadia.
4 Gunaikurnai - Gippsland's original dwellers.
5 It is told that the first Kurnai came down from the north-west mountains, with his canoe on his head. He was known as Borun, the pelican.
6 Middens - Mound or deposit containing shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of an aboriginal settlement.
7 Any of several species of Australian trees in the genus.
8 Mimis are fairy-like beings. They are said to have taught Indigenous Aborigines how to hunt meat and use fire. They are considered mischievous.
9 Melodious bird rather like a magpie.
