Late Winter In The Yarra Ranges Poem by Francis Duggan

On the tall mountain ash trees from here far away
The white cockatoos are squawking in Selby today
And the yellow eyed pied currawong are singing again
Some refer to them as the dark birds of rain.

Puffing Billy the steam train his horn sounds so shrill
Climbs the tracks towards Emerald up the wooded hill
And the creek through the undergrowth babbles on down
Under Puffing Billy bridge on by Belgrave Town.

In my flights of fancy the lyrebird I do hear
As in his song he mimics the birds that to him live near
The kookaburra, crimson rosella, the whipbird and weerloo
And the sulphur crested and gang gang cockatoo.

The low clouds of gray fog cloaks the tops of the trees
And there is a cool chill in the mid morning breeze
In the Yarra Ranges in the late Winter of the year
And beautiful Spring to the hills ever near.