This Brown And Ancient Countryside Poem by Francis Duggan

The countryside around Keith is looking bare and brown
That stretches on to Padthaway and across to Bordertown
Most parts of South Australia at the wettest of times are dry
And there is not one rain cloud in the sunny Autumn sky.

Across the bare and dry countryside the drought has hit severe
And for the vineyard owners of Padthaway a poor financial year
But do not worry for them despite of what you hear
As they are wealthy people and on them why waste a tear.

This brown and ancient Country has inspired the bards to rhyme
It was a very old Land even back in the Dreamtime
The indigenous tribes who lived and hunted here long before the others came
For these parts of South Australia surely had another name.

Where dams and creeks of water all but empty animals and birds are rare
This is a dry old countryside it looks so brown and bare
From Penola to Narracoorte and from Padthaway to Keith
For wild or domesticated animals so little grass to eat.