The Old Loddon River

It was a mighty river according to old Joe
When he was a youngster seven decades ago
But climate change it seems has become the foe
Of the Loddon that has lost some of the depth of it's flow

In central Victoria by many a country town
The old Loddon river in waters of dark brown
Through flat and dry paddocks that are often bare
In this part of Australia long spells of rainfall are rare

Where years ago in pre big machine times prospectors mined for gold
Stories of their successes and disappointments in book form have been told
Some of them became wealthy but many of them died in poverty
Not all can be winners is how human life seems to be

The old Loddon river that has inspired story and rhyme
An old waterway even in the Dreamtime
It flows in the land of long bill corella of the race of white cockatooo
Where Australia's first people hunted emu and roo

Through bare and dry paddocks by night and by day
The Loddon flows on towards the sea far away
Not the river it once was according to Joe
It has shrunk in depth since a few decades ago.