On The Shores Of The Dardanelles
Composed by L. Chaplin.
Our heroes of Australia,
Who faced tile Turkish shells,
Have left their names for ever
On the shores of the Dardanelles.
Noble sons of Australia
With thousands of others fell,
Covered in honor and glory
And blood from the shot and shell.
Seared in the wilds, of Australia ;
Where our native bushmen ride
Across the hills and valleys
And along the mountain side,
The boys who broke the horses
And firmly held the reins
Were masters in the saddle
With the colts out on the plains.
And some were from the office,
From the plough and from the bench;
The swagman and the drover
All rose to man the trench.
United all together
They donned the suit of brown,
And vowed to serve their country,
To fight for the King and Crown.
They heard the bugle calling,
And the National Anthem played ;
Our heroes rose in thousands
The call they all obeyed
The flower of our manhood,
Some have gone for ever more.
They sailed away from Australia
Bound for a foreign shore.
They boldly reached the front ;
Amid the shrieking shells ;
Fought and died for the Empire
On the Shores of the Dardanelles.
In after years, when books are bound,
The Australian people reads
Of Britain and Her Allies,
Their gallant mighty, deeds ;
Of how the foe was beaten
And driven out of France,
Through Belgium back to Berlin,
At the bayonet's point and lance.
With the awful struggle over,
The world again at peace,
The Kaiser's armies broken,
His brutal rule must cease.
But our heroes from Australia,
Who faced the Turkish shells,
Have left their names for ever ;
On the Shores of the Dardanelles.
Notes
From the Victorian newspaper the Myrtleford Mail and Whorouly Witness Thursday 29 July 1915 p. 7.
This ballad was written to commemorate the first anniversary of World War I. See also in this collection "Our Heroes" written by the same author.