Sleeper Cutters' Lament (1902)
There are but few trees remaining
To remind us of the past,
For the pace was something awful,
And the timber couldn't last ;
And we'll hear no more the music
'Of thfe squaring axe and saw
As we did when we cut sleepers,
In those happy days of yore.
And those' few that are remaining ?
Are a very doubtful lot ;
Either crooked, small, or ringy,
Or not sufficient wood they've got;
And we wander up the ridges,
And search the flats once more,
But we find no stately blackbutts,
Like we did in days of yore.
ANON in "Gosford Times."
Notes
From the Wagga NSW Newspaper the Worker Sat 12 Jul 1902 p. 3.