On Seeing Kangaroos Poem by Francis Duggan

In the Wonthaggi heathlands two hours before nightfall
We saw a mob of kangaroos of all sizes big to small
On a cool Winter evening with a slight chill in the breeze
With my workmates Mike Reyerse and Bob Thompson and we were planting trees.

At least one hundred kangaroos went bounding up the hill
And seeing such a large mob of them is always a great thrill
As they stopped and stood erect gazing back at us from a safe distance away
They seemed like a group of burnt tree stumps in the weakening light of day.

They have been bounding through the scrublands centuries before the black tribes came
When Australia was not known of life for them went on the same
'Tis said the Aboriginals gave them the name of Kangaroo in English the name means 'there he goes'
The joey the mother nurses in her pouch into an adult quickly grows.

At least one hundred kangaroos two hundred hopping feet
Went bounding through the knee high scrub up the Wonthaggi heath
Sketched by the famous artists they've inspired the poets to rhyme
These descendants of ancestors of centuries before the Dreamtime.