These poems say it better than any other words can
And are just as relevant today as 20 years ago.
The Manhood Test
You often hear them bragging that they’re handy with a gun
But their IQs are so low that they shoot animals for fun.
And they probably feel heroic when they move in for the kill
Against an animal that’s defenceless and quite likely to stand still.
But if kangaroos carried rifles and could shoot with deadly aim
Do you think these jerks who hunt them now would ever be so game?
Would these losers still use spotlights when they’re hunting in the night
Against a creature armed and dangerous, and spoiling for a fight?
NO! Their numbers would diminish like the darkness at first light
For it takes a lot of courage when you have to stand and fight.
And history shows these sadists who shoot animals for thrill,
Are complete and utter cowards when it’s THEY that might be killed.
So if YOU are a shooter and your manhood is in doubt,
Why don’t you join the Army where they’re sure to sort it out?
And when you hear the bullets humming and you know they’re meant for you,
Spare a thought as you are running for the poor old kangaroo.
— Bill Charlton, 2005
And Let the Future Mourn
[Sung to tune of Advance Australia Fair]
Australians all, let’s celebrate
Our wealth of life and land.
We’ve stripped and shot and burned a lot,
But still, what’s left is grand!
We must exploit our creatures here,
So strange and rich and rare!
They’re pests you know, let’s make some dough —
There’s plenty here to spare!
They’re pests you know, let’s make some dough —
There’s plenty here to spare!
We’ve stripped the trees across the land
To grow our wool and wheat.
We know it just turns soil to dust,
But debts we have to meet.
Disease we spread all others dread
’Cause we’re unique you know!
When bilbies die of RCD
We’ll just deny it’s so!
When bilbies die of RCD
We’ll just deny it’s so!
Our land abounds in kangaroos
Our farmers love to blame.
We let them kill each year five mill. —
Just one more national shame!
So let’s exploit our creatures here,
Both new and native born!
We’ll eat them all, or sell them all,
And let the future mourn!
We’ll eat them all, or sell them all,
And let the future mourn!
— Frankie Seymour, 1999
— WHEN —
When our forests are depleted
And the eucalypts have gone,
When koalas do not have a tree
Or leaves to feed upon.
When the kangaroo is history,
And the emu just a word.
The wombat just a fable
And the crow an extinct bird.
When all these things have left us,
What will it be like then?
Just a bare and open desert,
Filled with thoughtless greedv men.
And what will be the emblem
Of this pride of hungry lions?
Perhaps crossed rifles and an axe,
Beside a row of dollar signs!
And in the future, will the children
Just find kangaroos in books.
And koalas in museums
In some dark and dusty nook.
Forget about the forests,
For they will be long gone.
And so will all the loggers,
Though their legacy will live on.
A legacy of barren land,
0f grassless, treeless plains.
Where dust and empty solitude
Are all that will remain.
Why can’t we live in yesterday,
When the kangaroo roamed free.
Where emus graced our native land,
And koalas climbed in trees.
— Bill Charlton, 2005
