Reminiscences of the Early Days of Dandenong [by G. F. Roulston.]

Originally published in the Dandenong Journal from 10 March to 22nd September, 1932.
This copy is taken from the original published then, not the book version now used by others.

Dandenong: A Poem By Hook

There were poets in Dandenong in the very early times, and from an old “Journal” I culled the following. The author, I think, was at one time the licensee of Dunn’s Hotel, as the name fits in with several incidents connected with the friendly intercourse between the police and the publicans, when food, etc., was scarce, and in a neighbourly fashion they borrowed from each other. In an old police file I saw the entry, “returned 51bs. of tea to Mr. Hook, ’’ which seems to bear out my impression, that gentlemen at the time being the licensee of “Dunn’s.”

A township sweet and beautiful,
With houses pretty and neat;
Gardens decked with flowers rare,
And clean in every street.
With hills each side where’re we look,
Close by ranges rising high;
A running brook, so clear, so dear,
Continuously running by;

Where a forest large and wild once stood,
Where the black man lived for years;
Where the kangaroo so oft’ was killed,
With the long and pointed spears.
Where corroboree so oft’ was held,
Around the blazing pile;
Where, when in battle steath’ly crept.
The warriors in single file.

Fix this textThe white man camped long, long ago,
And Dunbar with the natives had
A consultation with the then great men,
When he taught them good from bad.
Where children were kidnapp’d from homes,
But now all these have gone;
And reminding us of the days of yore,
Stands the township—Dandenong

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