Poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

El Mahdi to the Australian Troops

And wherefore have they come, this warlike band, 
That o’er the ocean many a weary day 
Have tossed; and now beside Suakim’s Bay, 
With faces stern and resolute, do stand, 
Waking the desert’s echoes with the drum -- 
Men of Australia, wherefore have ye come? 
To keep the Puppet Khedive on the throne, 
To strike a blow for tyranny and wrong, 
To crush the weak and aid the oppressing strong! 
Regardless of the hapless Fellah’s moan, 
To force the payment of the Hebrew loan, 
Squeezing the tax like blood from out the stone? 

And fair Australia, freest of the free, 
Is up in arms against the freeman’s fight; 
And with her mother joined to crush the right -- 
Has left her threatened treasures o’er the sea, 
Has left her land of liberty and law 
To flesh her maiden sword in this unholy war. 

Enough! God never blessed such enterprise -- 
England’s degenerate Generals yet shall rue 
Brave Gordon sacrificed, when soon they view 
The children of a thousand deserts rise 
To drive them forth like sand before the gale -- 
God and the Prophet! Freedom will prevail.

1. A Grain of Desert Sand
2. That Half-Crown Sweep
3. Under the Shadow of Kiley’s Hill
4. The Passing of Gundagai
5. White Cockatoos

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