Give Port Arthur Back It's Beauty Poem by Francis Duggan

Much about him has been written of his life and acts of shame
And for all the worst of reasons his has become a World known name
He shot to death thirty five people maimed and injured many more
And in half an hour of brutal hatred he left grief and pain and gore.

Long before Martin Bryant was heard of Port Arthur had the
dubious renown
Of where the British kept their convicts those who sinned against the crown
Those who stole to feed their children to Van Diemen's Land
were sent
In the dungeons of Port Arthur their prime years of life were spent.

There the Irish freedom fighters for their beloved Homeland pined
Half a World away from Ireland in Port Arthur jail confined
Their crime was to love their Country and they were punished for their crime
Never more to see their Homeland prisoners in a foreign clime.

In the World's first concentration camp Port Arthur People suffered pined and died
They were treated as inferior and their human rights to them denied
And in Port Arthur in Tasmania down south by the Tasman sea
Martin Bryant one April sunday went on his mad shooting spree.

Some say Martin Bryant is evil and others say he must be mad
But what he did was worse than evil he did something worse than bad
In Port Arthur in Tasmania he gave vent to his rage and hate
But those he murdered can't be brought back and they deserved a better fate.

There are good People in Tasmania good as you'll meet anywhere
And there's no evil in Port Arthur though evil things have happened there
There the English kept their prisoners from their Homelands
far away
And the old jail of Port Arthur is their monument today.

On a sunday in April 1996 young Martin Bryant drove into Port Arthur Town
Went into Broad Arrow Cafe gunned the dining tourists down
Why do such unworthy People live in human history?
When he's not worthy of a mention wipe him from the memory.

And burn the old jail of Port Arthur only ghosts of sorrow there
Why make history out of suffering human anguish and despair?
And give Port Arthur back it's beauty it deserves a better fame
Than memories of a callous killer and cruel acts of English shame.