The Wonthaggi Italian Community Poem by Francis Duggan

By Cameron Street their bones at rest forever more
The men who mined for coal born and raised on a distant shore
The majority of them natives of Italy
They worked hard to support their wives and family

At the weekends with their friends and their families Boche they did play
A bowls game with it's source in their homeland far away
Men who worked hard in the coalmine for their take home pay
Many of their descendants are living in the Wonthaggi of today

To be honest and hard working people their only claim to renown
The men who came to Wonthaggi from many a far away town
Today's Wonthaggi's Italian community is close bonded and strong
To a coal mining ancestry they does belong

In the cemetery by Cameron Street their last remains lay
In Italy many of them first saw light of day
And today in Wonthaggi in the Bunurong countryside
The large Italian community there on their heritage take pride.