Rose From Wonthaggi Poem by Francis Duggan

She told me how her father worked as a coalminer
In Wonthaggi in South Giuppsland years ago
Deep in the mine shaft tunnelling and digging
The work was rough and hard and progress slow.

She left Wonthaggi in her early twenties
To marry and in Box Hill settle down
She has a son and daughter and grandchildren
The miner's daughter from Wonthaggi Town.

She only talk of happiness she now know
And her past to her a faded memory
This woman from the coal Town of Wonthaggi
Gray haired though looking well for seventy three.

I asked her do you still visit Wonthaggi?
Been there last year but maybe never more
In my Hometown I see so many changes
It's not the place I knew in days of yore.

When the mines closed Wonthaggi was the loser
I feel the place has lost some of it's soul
Since time has claimed the makers of Wonthaggi
Broad shouldered men who tunnelled deep for coal.

She now live east of Melbourne at Ferntree Gully
And in the cafe her I often see
And she often come and join me at my table
Just for a chat as she sip her coffee.

Her father was a miner in Wonthaggi
That Town she left some fifty years ago
And despite her gray I would have thought much younger
That is if Rose's age I did not know.