The River That Is Known As The Hopkins Poem by Francis Duggan

It is a vast body of water a wonder of Nature to see
The river that is known as the Hopkins through Warrnambool crawls to the sea
From a very humble beginning into a vast waterway it does grow
As near to the shores of the Pacific at a slow snail's pace it slowly does flow
Thousands of centuries before Cook and his sailors arrived on this southern shore
Going by what the scientists do tell us fifty thousand years or more
The first Australians had their own name for the now Hopkins River and on warm evenings in the shade of the trees
By it's brown banks out of the glare of the sunshine they sung and danced their corroborees
Us people are like the Seasons of Nature to life we come and life from us go
And though we may learn about Nature so little of her ways we do know
Our Seasons of life are not many we are mortals born to die
The same for the monarch and the pauper and the same for you and for I
But the Hopkins will flow on forever through Warrnambool on to the sea
It has inspired poets and artists and a wonder of Nature to see.