This Is Such A Very Old Country Poem by Francis Duggan

This is such a very old Country 'twas an old Country before the first humans on it's shores arrived
And the descendants of the first Australians the arrival of others survived
The home of so many marsupials and gums and wattles and pittosporum trees
And hundreds of different bird species in this Land of the southern seas.

This is such a very old Country and it's age cannot be measured in time
The artists have sketched it's wild beauty and the bards by it inspired to rhyme
Before the age of the dinosaurs this old Country then very old
The story of it's ancient history by humans will never be told.

From the desert lands and the wide brown outback to the coastal lands by the sea shore
This old Land has been here forever and will be here forever more
By the brown banks of it's mighty river in the shadow of the river gum trees
The first Australians used to gather to enjoy their corroborees.

This is such a very old Country and it's age not for humans to know
And to this old Land in the south seas the Seasons they come and they go
It was here long before the Dreamtime or long before the first dinosaurs came
And this Land will be here forever this old Land Australia by name.