As The Murray River Mourns
© 1997
(Jemma Lilley)

You care not of my beauty, you care nothing of my heart
You'd rather reap the benefits and tear my world apart
You irrigate your properties, you bleed my life force dry
You'd rather lose the lot than see your precious cattle die
You pitch your tents by campfire, you steal more than timbered fuel
Do you appreciate all aspects of my offerings you fool!???

You won't look to the future, you just see what's here and now
A tunnel-viewed perspective, profits, crops and bloody cows
You speak of wildlife precious with your empty promised words
You lie, professing to protect the eucalypts and birds
You've fished out all my bounties, you've eroded all my banks
You expect all creatures small and great to give their thanks?

I wont survive much longer, you push poison through my veins
The salinity is choking me, I thirst for quenching rain
I am the Mighty Border but you've reduced me to a trickle
Your pillaging audacity to call Mother Nature fickle!
You never will be satisfied, you'll never claim my soul
Even if my destiny's a dried up water hole!

I am the Mighty Border and have been for countless years
Will future generations gaze at pictures through their tears?
So as you warm by campfire, 'neath the star-filled, moonlit skies
Remember me for when I'm gone, you'll suffer your demise!