After Strezlecki, settlers came,
Back in the old hard years,
To play a lonely, losing game
'Gainst Gippsland mud and forest flame -
Tough-hearted pioneers.
A scanty living here to seek,
They fought a battle dire;
They blazed a trail to Brandy Creek
And travelled fifty miles a week
On sledges thro' the mire.
They called their inn the "Robin Hood,"
A welcome refuge then,
Last outpost of good cheer that stood,
Most fitly, by the robber wood
That filched the strength of men.
And after, on the way they took
By Warragul and Drouin,
By Gunyah-Gunyah and Balook,
Stood many a home by hill and brook
Gone, like their hopes, to ruin.
But now who seeks, on pleasure bent,
The road that tops the ridge
Where once the struggling settlers went
Shall find a land of sleek content
By bank and sturdy bridge.
And where the men knew the forest's wrath
Around the Allambee,
By Kurrajong and Mirboo North,
The silver way goes winding forth
To Yarram and the sea.
First published in The Herald, 15 December 1931
Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
