The Countryside Around Leongatha Poem by Francis Duggan

The Countryside around Leongatha may look green
But sad to say so few trees to be seen
The pioneering farmers cut the old trees away
And for so called progress there's some price to pay.

The pioneering farmers thought that they were doing right
That the trees starved the brown lands of sunlight
They removed the trees for crops and grass to grow
But what seems right to do not always so.

And their descendants from better knowledge have learnt since
That having trees as shelter breaks would make more sense
Where their animals could go to in wind and rain
From our ancestors mistakes some knowledge we attain.

As many landowners have come to know
You don't have soil erosion where trees grow
And though to change the natural balance we may try
It's our own environment we destroy.

The countryside around Leongatha looking green
But sad to say there few trees to be seen
And many of the animals and birds that once lived there
Just like the trees that sheltered them now rare.