The Richardson River

​Major Mitchell came through 'ere
The old timer said
Through a cloud of smoke
Old Bert lived here all his life
Overlooking the river
Weren't always like this

In '56 we had one hell of a flood
The 60's saw it's share of them too
Nearly came up ta Wood Street
Even covered the bloody Laen Bridge
Jack Smith's chook yard went under
Bloody chooks didn't know what ta do

That bugger Major Mitchell
He went from Sydney to Portland
Why the bloody hell he did that
I'm buggered if I know
A bloke lived there with his family
He didn't even know they was there

One of his drongoes drowned
Fell off his bloody horse
So they named the river after him
The bloke's name was Richardson
Later some bludger called it the Avon
It'll always be the Richardson to me

Pointing upstream a bit
Where the river was only puddles
Many times have I fished
In me boat out there
Had plenty of feeds of red fin
Caught near the railway bridge

Not any bloody more young fella
'ave a look at the bloody river now
Just a series of flaming billabongs
Too dry to boat too wet to walk
This global bloody warming
Has stolen the damn river