Publication: Melbourne Herald
Date: 02 May 1929
Complaint has been made that Australians, when abroad, are not sufficiently enthusiastic about their own country. Their strongest superlative is “Not too bad.”
He travelled far in foreign lands
To view the sights beyond the seas;
And, when he spoke of distant strands,
Broke into praiseful ecstasies.
But, when they asked of brighter skies
And nobler sights Australia had,
The glad light faded from his eyes
As he gave answer, “Not too bad.”
He’d seen the wonder of the moon
Upon white Kosciusko’s heights;
He’d walked upon a tropic noon
’Mid palms; he’d seen the fairy lights
Upon “Our Harbor”; seen the dawn
Come up o’er Hinchinbrook. Yet, should
They ask him of these things, he’d yawn
And tell them it was “Pretty good.”
He’d seen — oh, old familiar things,
But these were close by his own door —
Things not to give his fancy wings
Or wax enthusiastic o’er.
Yet when he ventures overseas
Can he know pride in Nationhood
Who finds in praise of such as these
But “Not too bad” and “Pretty good”?