Story Behind The Song

This is a general plea for conservation of the environment although it is set in Australia.

Lyrics

Homeland

1.
I have come back again to my homeland,
To the place where my family was born
But the tall forest trees
Have been cleared to the seas
And the quolls from the mountains are gone.
The rosella no more paints the tree-tops,
The axe-man has stolen its song.
The seals come ashore
To the beaches no more
Where the curlews no longer belong.

Chorus
Carry me back to the old days.
Play me the magpie's refrain.
Bring back the views and the creatures I knew
And give me my homeland again.

2.
There once was a time when the sky-line
Was home to the birds and the trees
When the friar birds spoke
As the bushland awoke
As the sun lit the ironbark's leaves
But it seems like the good times are over
As my heart from the vision recoils.
No gulls fish the lake
For there's nothing to take
Since the trawlers have left with their spoils.

Chorus

3.
The mynas have now taken over
The few nesting spots that remain
And the carp fill the streams
Where the perch once had been
And the tree frogs are struggling in vain.
The wallaby's gone from the grassland,
The eagle has left its domain,
The feral cat springs
On the small native things,
There's no storm hawk to herald the rain.

Chorus