The bitumen ends where the dust begins, the land is in decay
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Gums and wattles hang their heads in the furnace of another day
Barely a sound in the bush is heard, just ‘aaark’ from a scavenging crow
The creek is dry to the hills above where it used to start its flow
...
A thousand sheep are on the drove, their lambs have long since died
Those merino ewes are the breeding stock on which the farm relied
The roadside pick is all that remains and is slowly running out
It’s enough to make a tough man weep to see victims of the drought
...
The cattle farms are hard hit too, their cows are just skin and bone
When Turnbull said ‘I understand’ the bush gave a collective groan
Banker, Lawyer and Politician, does he really understand?
No one feels the heartache and pain like those working on the land
...
And don’t forget the farming group who provide us the country’s grain
Their paddocks lay bare and barren until they get the rain
They don’t have the fluffy lambs to provide a media spectre
But they’re all an essential part of the struggling rural sector
...
Dams are empty, bores are dry and the incessant heat still prevails
Hay sheds have nothing more to give, after losing ten thousand bales
With years of enduring lack of rain and the constant bid to survive
Suddenly the drought is relevant and the media cameras arrive
They focus on those fluffy lambs and the tears on farmer’s faces
…
Journos wear new Akubra hats to impress those wretched places
And when the grabs for nightly news are aired for the entire nation
The studio jocks in suits and frocks make pleas for our donation
...
There are no public-service perks for the farmers doing it tough
No sick pay if they are feeling crook, no rest if they’ve had enough
Farmers get no lifelong pensions for just simply doing their work
There are no limousines or free airfares way out the Back-o-Bourke
...
Then the experts all come out from ‘think tanks’ that hold no water
‘Climate Change is what’s to blame and cause all those farms to falter’
‘To save the farms use no more coal, that’s what is needed here’
Which only reinforces that those ‘think tanks’ have no idea
...
Droughts have come and gone for ions past, always to be expected
They caused havoc a long way back, before coal stations were erected
No doubt their effects have multiplied with the increased population
Now we need a paradigm shift to produce food for all the nation
David Judge, Bendigo
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