by Daniel Kelly – 2019
When the water doesn’t flow
G D C G
The great Darling river, she starts in the north
C G D
From the south Queensland ranges, bursting forth,
G D C G
She once flowed so freely, over the land,
C G Am D
Feeding and shaping, with her powerful hand.
C G D
But when the water don’t flow,
Am G D
It’s then that you’ll come to know,
C G
That you can’t drink the gold,
D G
You stole for her soul,
Am G
And there’s death in the river,
D G
That ceases to flow.
Well you start to dam her, controlling her flow,
Polluted her catchments to make the crops grow,
At Lake Alexandrina it’s easy to see,
There’s nothing left, to flow into the sea.
A million dead fish, in Menindee town,
Water that’s putrid, lifeless and brown,
The sad consequences, of years of abuse,
No respect for the land or its use
The water will flow, in a thousand years time,
When humanity fails, trapped in our grime,
The fish and the marshlands, will flourish again,
As nature recovers, from the violence of men.