From the Mayor's Desk - Friday 1 May 2009
Date: 01-May-09
Author: Alison Davey
In this column I'd like to share with you the words of a song, written by Father Graham Jackson of the Wollombi/Laguna Parish to the tune of Waltzing Matilda. The song was performed by the Wollombi Combined Church Choir with a very moving rendition at the Dawn Service at Wollombi Anzac Reserve on Anzac Day recently.
- Once four thousand diggers
Rushed across those fatal shores
Into the blaze of trained Turkish guns
And they fell by their hundreds
Fighting for our country,
Ancient Australia, the land of the free.
CHORUS
Sing of our history
Sing of our future
Sing that forever
We may be true
To the mighty Tradition
Forged by our ancestors
ANZACS in mateship
In war and in peace - Forged by a blunder
Of that great Colonial power.
Forged by defeat in an ancient foreign land.
And our land has been shaped
By their blood and tender terror
We are their children. They, brave and true
CHORUS - We are the children
Of the men and women
Fighting and working at home and abroad.
And the faithful tradition
Bears on throughout our history,
Buna, Tobruk, Timor L'este, Vietnam.
CHORUS - Papua, New Guinea,
Western Front, Rwanda.
Ancient lands aching to be free
Australian hist'ry
Written by our pioneers
Surge through our genes in our hope to be free
CHORUS - And we know that our soldiers
From Italian families
German, Chinese and Afghan too,
Koori, Murri, Nungah
All Australian citizens
Fought and keep fighting for justice and truth.
CHORUS - May we weld all our cultures
To strive for human dignity,
Peace and compassion, the life of the free
That the pain of this fighting
Be turned to peaceful future
Borne in the face of our new pioneers
CHORUS - And forever we must
Ever be reminded
Of the willing sacrifice our ancestors made
For universal justice
In our search for freedom
Sounding forever the cry of the brave
CHORUS
Call someone you know today and tell them what you appreciate about them.
Alison
