Rose From Wonthaggi

She told me how her father worked as a coalminer In Wonthaggi in South Giuppsland years ago Deep in the mine shaft tunnelling and digging The work was rough and hard and progress slow. She left Wonthaggi in her early twenties To marry and in Box Hill settle down She has a son and daughter and grandchildren The miner's daughter from Wonthaggi Town. She only talk of happiness she now know And her past to her a faded memory This woman from the coal Town of Wonthaggi Gray haired though looking well for seventy three. I asked her do you still visit Wonthaggi? Been there last year but maybe never more In my Hometown I see so many changes It's not the place I knew in days of yore. When the mines closed Wonthaggi was the loser I feel the place has lost some of it's soul Since time has claimed the makers of Wonthaggi Broad shouldered men who tunnelled deep for coal. She now live east of Melbourne at Ferntree Gully And in the cafe her I often see And she often come and join me at my table Just for a chat as she sip her coffee. Her father was a miner in Wonthaggi That Town she left some fifty years ago And despite her gray I would have thought much younger That is if Rose's age I did not know.