The Road of Remembrance

The Great Ocean Road, built by 2300 returned Diggers after 13 years labor, is now completed and is to be officially opened by the Governor on Saturday.

When Hannibal marched o’er the Alps,
When Caesar crossed to Greece,
They blasted roads to butchery:
These built a road to peace.
To peace beside their southern sea
From northern hells they came
To plan a nobler victory,
To win a fairer fame.

And, while Australian summers burned,
Close to their own good earth
They toiled together and relearned
Their own land’s carefree mirth.
And where, beside the carven track,
They bent to tasks anew,
Their own green mountains echoed back
Their laughter to the blue.

Twixt azure sea and sunny sky,
Slung by a thread in space,
A newer war they waged on high
Against the stern cliff ’s face.
Stripped to the waist, as in old stress
Men served the guns their load,
They battled on to happiness
And found it — up the road.

And now, where popping drills awoke
The echoes, as of guns —
Machine guns ‘mid the reeking smoke —
Their road’s white ribbon runs
Down where the Bush its fragrance spills,
Their monument to be
Hung twixt the everlasting hills
And the eternal sea.

“Den”
Herald, 24 November 1932, p10