| Red gum savannahs once so vast | | Ochre pits, and stone-axe blaze |
| For millennia their shadows cast | | Then Mitchell and the bullock drays |
| Across the tribal hunting grounds | | Longboats on his Glenelg River |
| Amid a feast of primeval sounds | | Mount William’s winds made riders quiver |
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| Trunks columnar, mottled grey | | Two hundred years with us around |
| Legions anchored in sandy clay | | Settlers needed the red gums’ ground |
| Canopies a dappled green | | For sheep and crops and living space |
| Seasonally a flowery mien | | We cleared them at a rollicking pace |
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| Branches shed from time to time | | So much waste! |
| Leaving cavities – shelter prime | | What shocking haste! |
| For mammals, birds and bats | | Insensitive to their age and grace |
| And marauding goannas and rats | | Bloody base! |
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| Those branches drying, strewn | | Mortised for a post-and-rail |
| For decades perhaps, until consumed | | Split and interlocked at Harrow gaol |
| By friendly fires of Koorie camps | | And the shearing shed at Kout Narin |
| Allaying hunger, cold and damp | | Gossamer fleece and shearers lean |
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| Harbouring insects by the swarm | | Fence posts, light-rail sleepers |
| Myriad organisms were the norm | | It’s our land now! Finders keepers! |
| Under the bark, munching greenery | | Today the timber’s appreciated |
| Part of the ecological scenery! | | Boutique floorboards, balustraded |
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| And relentless fungi and ants and more | | A glorious russet-coloured timber |
| Attacked the red gum’s woody core | | From Kimberley to Mirrimbah |
| Fifty to a hundred decades thus | | Australia’s most widespread tree |
| Ashes to ashes and dust to dust… | | Symbol of our superb country |
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| The big’uns dropped seed continually | | Is it the most Antipodean tree? |
| A seedling survived, became a tree | | Yet there is an irony… |
| One in a million, maybe less | | camaldulensis, botanists call this plant |
| Died a veteran – as for the rest | | Referring to a locale distant |
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| Grazed by ‘roos or burnt by fires | | Camaldule’s a monastery in Italia… |
| Lightning or hunter lit the pyres | | Not a farming district in Australia! |
| Of numberless seedlings that disappeared | | Who cares? So what! |
| Unfulfilled, year by year | | We must protect, extend the trees we’ve got! |
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| The survivors dominated the plains | | I trust my grandkids, as is my bent |
| At home in drought or heavy rain | | Can delight in red gums ancient |
| Responding as the climates changed | | Can sense their venerability |
| Subtly extending or shrinking range | | Their strength and complex poetry |
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| Gariwerd outwash, volcanic fumes | | Scattered still across the landscape |
| Lakes and swamps and lunette dunes | | West wind skews their Lego shape |
| Lava flows and sands windblown | | Outer branchlets dying back |
| Megafauna – wombats overgrown! | | A dead-end-road? Red Gum Track! |
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| Scores of millennia pass | | As a boy with crosscut saw I stood |
| Ecosystems of gums and grass | | Helping Dad cut winter’s wood |
| Another change – along came Man | | I took each block and backed it off |
| And his ability to clan and plan | | Cross-grained red gum isn’t soft! |
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| Stalk the emu, harvest yams | | Now I work with Landcare squads |
| Corangamite, Tarrayoukyan | | Is it the twilight of the gods? |
| Canoe scar a Koorie rune | | Or can we massively regenerate |
| Campfire sagas under the moon | | The finest tree of the Garden State? |
