Gippsland Drought. Poem by Francis Duggan

The farmers not too happy and the price of cattle down
And the hills above Wonthaggi are looking dry and brown
And the parched paddocks of Gippsland are crying out for rain
But the forecast for the coming week is warm and dry again.

In four months of warm weather just two hours of rainfall
And I spoke to octogenarian and she can well recall
Seventy five Gippsland summers when brown replace the green
But hills above Wonthaggi the brownest she has seen.

High above the sunlit paddocks the welcome swallows fly
As forecasters of the weather they never seem to lie
The bees and flies they feed on with rising temperatures high
And far closer to Mother Earth whenever rain is nigh

From drought or from long warm spells or call it what you may
Those hills above Wonthaggi are looking brown today
And the parched paddocks of Gippsland are crying out for rain
But the forecast for the coming week is warm and dry again.