Pioneers by Frank Hudson

Pioneers by Frank Hudson

We are the Old-world people,
Ours were the hearts to dare;
But our youth is spent, and our backs are bent,
And the snow is in our hair.

Back in the early fifties,
Dim through the mists of years,
By the bush-grown strand of a wild, strange land,
We entered - the pioneers.

Our axes rang in the woodlands,
Where the gaudy bush-birds flew,
And we turned the loam of our newfound home,
Where the Eucalyptus grew.

Housed in the rough log shanty,
Camped in the leaking tent,
From sea to view of the mountains blue
Where the eager diggers went.

We wrought with a will unceasing,
We moulded, and fashioned, and planned
And we fought with the black and we blazed the track
That ye might inherit the land.

There are your shops and churches,
Your cities of stucco and smoke;
And the swift trains fly where the wild cat’s cry
O’er the sad bush silence broke.

Take now the fruit of our labour,
Nourish and guard it with care;
For our youth is spent, and our backs are bent
And the snow is in our hair.

The first page of the Victorian Education Department 5th Grade Reader contained this tribute to those who have gone before us.

Reconciliation

A work for harpsichord, didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds symbolising the reconciliation of two cultures was performed at City of London Festival in 2001 with the support of freemasons.

Details of this performance

Readings from the diaries of John Grant alternate with baroque harpsichord music and a specially commissioned work with didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds by Ron Nagorcka. This Beauteous Wicked Place, a work for harpsichord, didgeridoo and Australian bush sounds was commissioned by Elizabeth Anderson, with the assistance of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s Arts Funding and Advisory Body.