when they let
all the bulldozers loose, For we can't live with bull-
dozers daily and ponder on
problems abstruse; The time is for action
not dreaming where earth-
moving beasts have their lair, We have to be quick in this
era, or end as a bulldozer's
fare. Some cities were built by
slave labour,
but Canberra
owes a great debt To these monsters without
whose assistance the slaves
would be labouring yet: They turned all our hills
into valleys, and carved
out new suburbs with zest; There isn't a site in the city
a bulldozer hasn't caressed. We drive off to work in the
morning on a favourite,
secure thoroughfare, Then find with alarm on re-
turning the road we had
loved isn't there; Life's going to be awfully
prosaic if the bulldozers'
songs ever cease, For the sound of a city will
vanish, there'll be only a
vacuum of peace. Notes From the ACT Newspaper The Canberra Times 6 Mar 1965 p. 13.