Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Last One Of His Race

At Corranderk a patch of sacred ground
With miles of open country all around
And grass from Summer sun bleached gray and brown
Near Healesville fifty k's from Melbourne Town.

In unkept grave the final resting place
Of last Chief of the Yarra Yarra Race
And headstone inscribed to mark the memory
Of man who died in year 1903.

Barak last link to the historic past
And of his tribe the very very last
His ancestors ruled these parts till white man came
And now only Yarra river bear their name.

O'er Healesville paddocks welcome swallows fly
And bushlark pipes his Summer notes of joy
And sun shine brightly in late summer sky
And peace and a wild beauty meet the eye.

And in Corranderk the bones of dead chief lay
And he died a Christian so the record say
But what matter most when history book we trace
We find he was the last one of his race.

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