Poem - Mary Gilmore

The Men of New Australia

By Mary Gilmore

1893

Oh! The men of the New Australia

Are ready to cross the sea,

To form a band in a far-off land,

And show what men they be;

For the men of New Australia

Have turned from a hopeless strife,

Taken the Right as a guiding light

To lead to a nobler life.

They are gath’ring in from out of the West,

And in from the Central Plain,

From where the pelican builds her nest

And Drought a king doth reign.

Oh! The men of the New Australia

Have sworn they will live and die

As men must do who will prove anew

That Truth is not a lie.

And the men who have come together

Are going to live as mate:

The world shall see what a man can be

In the New Australia States.

They are gath’ring in from out of the West,

And in from the Central Plain,

From where the pelican builds her nest

And Drought a king doth reign.