Golden Wattle, Australia’s Emblem.
[By Ellie Wemyss.]
Wattle ! Emblem of Australia!
Flower of sun-gold splendour bright!
Royal crown and fit regalia!
Golden earth and flowers and light!
Where hearts of gold in love unite!
Emblem of her sun-gold glory!
Lavishing thy perfume sweet,
Telling with each breath thy story
Till our hearts with rapture beat,
Bright Australia’s flower to greet!
Free fresh air, cool creek and fountain,
Wide, wide vistas where the eye
Roams at will o’er plain and mountain;
Here no bound save blue, blue sky!
For this land we’ll live and die!
Sweet the rose to English lovers,
Sweeter thou than any rose;
Far-flung fragrance calling rovers
Back to where the wattle grows!
Where the sunshine ever glows!
Where the magpie calls at dawning,
Warbles woodland music mild,
Where the laughing jacks at morning
Laugh their greeting weird and wild,
Grows the wattle, bushland’s child!
Far-flung fragrance all are breathing,
Filling all the free, fresh air!
Creek and gully, bushland wreathing,
Crown us, too, with beauty rare.
Shall not we the wattle wear?
Gold is emblem of the purest;
Wattle-gold to us shall be
Emblem of the best end surest
Wealth — true gold, humanity!
Great and noble, strong and free!
Source:
The Register (Adelaide, SA), Thursday 1 September 1910, page 5
Also published in:
The Register (Adelaide, SA), Saturday 31 August 1912, page 4 [shorter version; 1st, 6th and 7th stanzas of the above]
The Institute of Australian Culture
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