The Man From The Coorong Poem by Francis Duggan

The man from South Australia's coastal Coorong
To Australia's first people his ancestry belong
Brown skin and brown eyes and hair black as a crow
His life journey began where the brown Murray flow

Through the bare and dry country of saltpans white as snow
And grass always scarce where saltbush does grow
There he first saw light of day and grew into a man
And a few times a year he goes home to his clan

In his late twenties with a young daughter and wife
He does seem like one quite content in his life
From where he lives the Coorong at least four hours by car away
It does seem he is in Warrnambool for the long stay

A descendant of Australia's first and oldest race
Though happy in Warrnambool the Coorong to him will always be home place
Where old Murray to the ocean does crawl deep and slow
In the land of the saltpans where the saltbush does grow.