Francis Duggan Miners Poems

The birds who wage war on other birds every day
And from their territories do chase them away
The aggressive noisy miners in feathers of mottled grey
In mobs have even been known to tackle large birds of prey
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The amazing Payne Family of Miners Rest
Paddy Payne snr and his family of jockeys and horse trainers Australia's best
Known horse racing family and famed Worldwide
Beyond the suburb of Ballarat City in Victoria's countryside
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Of any other species of bird they do not make a friend
With aggression their borders the noisy miners defend
Even against other family groups of their own kind
To all out aggression they are readily inclined
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Around a nankeen kestrel a pair of noisy miners fly
And they drive him from their territory across the morning sky
They have their nest with young in it on a tree somewhere nearby
And to protect their nestlings their outmost they will try.
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Where are they now the miners of Wonthaggi
The mighty men who tunnelled deep for coal?
Some of them resting in their graves forever
And of the youngest of them time is taking toll.
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The noisy miners live up to their name
As the noisiest family in their neighbourhood
You always hear them calling in small groups
On trees along the border of the wood.
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Robert Service and Jack London poems and stories wrote and told
Of their great days in the Yukon when men risked their all for gold
When they flocked up to the bleak north braved the Winter ice and snow
For to make an instant fortune back a century ago.
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On either side of the woodland pathway
The dead gums without leaves stand gaunt and gray
And bellbirds chirp on them all through the day
And where bellbirds are you only see decay.
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The old miners of Wonthaggi they may look old and gray
And they may now walk slowly but they too had their day
When they worked down in the coalmine and every day seemed
long
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