2 Poems from the local history archive

From “The Barraba Chronicle”, Thursday, August 20, 1942

These lines came with the footnote: “Written at the request of A.I.F. men who have been left, as the writer is, in the Middle East.”

A Message to Australia

To guard their country in her hour of need

And see her through the changes of today.

They left their mates. We wished them all “God-speed”,

The lucky ones, those men who steamed away.

And now the die is cast we “soldier on”,

A little sad at heart, homesick, forlorn;

All longing for the chance to play our part

In fighting for the land where we were born.

But don’t we guard her? In the desert sand,

As in the jungle or upon the sea,

We are Australia’s sons, and ours the right

To battle for the cause that keeps her free.

So steadfastly we stand, whate’er may come,

To do our job where lies the greatest need.

WE don’t decide; we answer to the drum –

God grant that He may steel us for the deed!

“TIP” KELAHER

“Tip” Kelaher will not return from the Middle East; he fell in the Battle of Egypt.

Digger’s Lord Prayer

Dear Mr Prime Minister, which art in Canberra.

Curtin be thy name, thy taxation come;

Thy will be done in Perth as it is in Sydney;

Give us this day our deferred pay,

And forgive us our A.W.L.

Lead us not into the Army,

But deliver us from the Japs.

For thine is the Man Power,

The Austerity Loan and the War Loan.

For ever and ever.

What aman