White Australia

WHITE AUSTRALIA

My mother was three years old when this poster first appeared.

So that's not terribly long ago, yet now it seems so weird.

Australia is 'Europe' and yet it's 'Asia' too;

And the country's multicultural, so many folk are new.

'The Yellow Peril' from China was feared in those old days;

We feared that we'd be over-run by folk with 'funny' ways.

Yet now our links with China grow steadily, year by year;

Every other day it seems enormous mines appear.

In the pictures in the poster we see sheep and we see cows;

Australia was a country of just farms and fields and ploughs.

Our country is now a quarry, which many folk lament,

But, in this age of Depression, our quarry is heaven-sent.

This is the Asian Century and we're in the right place,

Though no-one knows the future and what we all may face.

A hundred years go by so fast, and one day we'll seem strange;

One thing never seems to change and that is the fact of change.

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THE CIRCUS OF LIFE.

You, already, are a member of the circus,

For life is lived with sawdust and with paint,

Your ponies gallop round and round like crazy

As you pretend to be the things you aint!

You tackle great big lions in your dealings,

You juggle different balls up in the air,

You swing from high trapezes when you're happy

And do things that you never thought you'd dare.

But you're the Sad Clown when you lose your footing,

Although your nose may be a jolly red,

And it breaks your heart when people roar with laughter

Every time you fall and bang your stupid head!

Sometimes you chance to act as the Ringmaster,

In charge of everyone, top of your game!

At other times you're mucking-out the stables,

A thousand miles away from any fame.

Yes, Life's a Circus and we all are in it;

We live our lives beneath a huge Big Top.

We're dancing to the crazy blaring music

Hoping like mad that it will never stop.

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PS

I only have three cousins left so they're very special to me. Dick and Paul are from the maternal side and Peter from the paternal. Peter and his wife, Ursula, are in Sydney at the moment, staying with their son Stephen, who is married to a Sydney girl. We met them at Hornsby today. Hornsby is on the line between Newcastle and Sydney and it seemed a convenient place to meet. Here we are enjoying lunch; Peter is on the left and Ursula is on Malcolm's right. It was delightful seeing them again after several years.

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