Glorious Australiana
Australian Platypus
The Platypus is unique to Australia with their webbed feet and duck bill. The adult will up to 65cms in length and can be found throughout Eastern Australia in clean rivers and streams. The platypus lays up to three eggs incubated by the mother. Platypus feed on insects, tadpoles, native flies, crustaceans, prawns etc.
Old Man Platypus
by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson.
Far from the trouble and toil of town,
Where the reed-beds sweep and shiver,
Look at a fragment of velvet brown --
Old Man Platypus drifting down,
Drifting along the river.
And he plays and dives in the river bends
In a style that is most elusive;
With few relations and few friends,
For Old man Platypus descends
From a family most exclusive.
He shares his burrow beneath the bank
With his wife and his son and daughter
At the roots of the reeds and the grasses rank;
And the bubbles show where our hero sank
To its entrance under the water.
Safe in their burrow below the falls
They live in a world of wonder,
Where no one visits and no one calls
They sleep like little brown billiard balls
With their beaks tucked neatly under.
And he talks in a deep unfriendly growl
As he goes on his journey lonely;
For he's no relation to fish nor fowl,
Nor to bird, nor beast, nor to horned owl,
In fact, he's the one and only!
The Free Selector's Daughter
by Henry Lawson
I met her on the Lachlan-side, a darling girl I thought her,
And ere I left I swore I'd win the free-selector's daughter.
I milked her father's cows a month, I brought the wood and water,
I mended all the broken fence, before I won the daughter.
I listened to her father's yarns, I did just what I 'oughter',
And what you'll have to do to win a free-selector's daughter.
I broke my pipe and burnt my twist and washed my mouth with water;
I had a shave before I kised the free selector's daughter.
Then rising in the frosty morn, I brought the cows for Mary,
And when I'd milked a bucketful I took it to the dairy.
I poured the milk into the dish while Mary held the strainer,
I summoned heart to speak my wish and oh! her blush grew plainer.
I told her I must leave the place, I said that I would miss her;
At first she turned away her face and then she let me kiss her.
I put the bucket on the ground, and in my arms I caught her;
I'd give the world to hold again, that free-selector's daughter!
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The Glorious Australiana images on this site are from a cd-rom called Images-Australia by ©GUM TREE GRAPHICS. Artwork created by Australians Barry Gardner & Jason Jover. I recommend when looking for excellent computer graphics you request ©GUM TREE GRAPHICS from your retailer.