From Deniliquin to Jerilderie paddocks gray and bare and brown
On to Narrandera and West Wyalong and many smaller country town,
To Forbes and Parkes and on through Dubbo, Gilgandra and Coonabarabran
Miles and miles of weary travel through the world of outback man.

On to Narribri and then to Moree on the north bound Newell highway
Through New South Wales the country's first State on a sunny April day
And we cross the Queensland border just after the sun go down
And we spend our first night in the Sunshine State in Goondiwindi Town.

Lettered signboards along the highway 'stop and rest for to survive'
From Victoria to South Queensland it's a long and tiring drive
For to see all of Australia it might take a century
It's a vast and open country and a lot of land to see.

Miles and miles of sunburnt country here and there a patch of green
Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle in the brownest land I've seen,
Kangaroos victims of traffic ravens pecking at their eyes
Here and there along the highway left as fodder for the flies.

This vast land of wondrous beauty is too big for man to tame
It's a wild and rugged country for want of a better name
Just a small part of Australia but the journey seems quite far
If you travel from Victoria to south Queensland in a car.

From the wooded hills of Sherbrooke to Echuca's border Town
On through New South Wales and northwards though a country wild and brown
On beyond South Queensland border to rest after tiring day
Just a small part of Australia but it seems a long, long way.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/from-victoria-to-south-queensland-by-car/