Henry Lawson

Wide Lies Australia

Wide lies Australia! The seas that surround her 
Flow for her unity – all states in one. 
Never has Custom nor Tyranny bound her – 
Never was conquest so peacefully won. 
Fair lies Australia! with all things within her 
Meet for a Nation, the greatest to be: 
Free to the White Man to woo and to win her: 
Those who’d be happy and those who’d be free. 

Free to live fully and free to live cleanly, 
Free to give learning to daughter and son; 
Free to act nobly but not to act meanly, 
Free to forget what the old lands had done. 
Free to be Brothers! Our hymn and our sermon 
To keep for the White World the balance of Power, 
Welcoming all, be they British or German, 
All come to help us – we’ll wait for the hour. 

Out in the West where the flood-water gathers – 
Out in the drought on the sand desert lone – 
Went the brave English and brave foreign fathers 
Fearlessly facing the fearful unknown. 
Gemmed with their names lies the great past behind us. 
Dark lie the storm clouds before us today, 
Let us so live the future shall find us 
Facing the danger as dauntless as they.