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# Aussie Climate Change Poem From the Early 1890s.
- URL: https://goodoil.news/aussie-climate-change-poem-from-the-early-1890s/
- Published: 2020-01-08T23:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2020-01-08T09:49:18.000Z
- Author: Juana Atkins
- Tags: Nostalgia Lane, World Climate change, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 03:49

**Editor notes:**

- “Rooned” is ruined in an Irish accent.
- “*the banks went broke*” is a reference to the drought and banking crisis of the early 1890s.
- “Banker” refers to a watercourse filled from bank to bank which is unusual in Australia as they are rarely or intermittently full.
- “In God’s good time” the rain stopped and spring arrived with “harvest-hopes immense”. The “knee-deep” grass, while good for feeding livestock, brought to mind the risk of bushfire.

**Said Hanrahan**.  
  
 "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
 In accents most forlorn,  
 Outside the church, ere Mass began,  
 One frosty Sunday morn.  
  
 The congregation stood about,  
 Coat-collars to the ears,  
 And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,  
 As it had done for years.  
  
 "It's lookin' crook," said Daniel Croke;  
 "Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,  
 For never since the banks went broke  
 Has seasons been so bad."  
  
 "It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,  
 With which astute remark  
 He squatted down upon his heel  
 And chewed a piece of bark.  
  
 And so around the chorus ran  
 "It's keepin' dry, no doubt."  
 "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
 "Before the year is out.  
  
"The crops are done; ye'll have your work  
To save one bag of grain;  
 From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke  
 They're singin' out for rain.  
  
 "They're singin' out for rain," he said,  
 "And all the tanks are dry."  
 The congregation scratched its head,  
 And gazed around the sky.  
  
 "There won't be grass, in any case,  
 Enough to feed an ass;  
 There's not a blade on Casey's place  
 As I came down to Mass."  
  
 "If rain don't come this month," said Dan, And cleared his throat to speak--  
 "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
"If rain don't come this week."  
  
 A heavy silence seemed to steal  
 On all at this remark;  
 And each man squatted on his heel,  
 And chewed a piece of bark.  
  
 "We want a inch of rain, we do,"  
 O'Neil observed at last; But Croke "maintained" we wanted two  
 To put the danger past.  
  
 "If we don't get three inches, man,  
 Or four to break this **drought**,  
 We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
 "Before the year is out."  
  
 In God's good time down came the rain;  
 And all the afternoon  
 On iron roof and window-pane  
 It drummed a homely tune.  
  
 And through the night it pattered still,  
 And lightsome, gladsome elves  
 On dripping spout and window-sill  
 Kept talking to themselves.  
  
 It pelted, pelted all day long,  
 A-singing at its work,  
 Till every heart took up the song  
 Way out to Back-o'Bourke.  
  
 And every creek a banker ran,  
 And **dams filled overtop**;  
 "We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
 "If this rain doesn't stop."  
  
 And stop it did, in God's good time;  
 And spring came in to fold  
 A mantle o'er the hills sublime  
 Of green and pink and gold.  
  
 And days went by on dancing feet,  
 With harvest-hopes immense,  
 And laughing eyes beheld the wheat  
 Nid-nodding o'er the fence.  
  
 And, oh, the smiles on every face,  
 As happy lad and lass  
 Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place  
 Went riding down to Mass.  
  
 While round the church in clothes genteel  
 Discoursed the men of mark,  
 And each man squatted on his heel,  
 And chewed his piece of bark.  
  
 "**There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,**  
 There will, without a doubt;  
 We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,  
 "Before the year is out."  
  
[John O'Brien](https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/106072280?ref=goodoil.news)

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