SUNRISE ON THE COAST
Two Tree Point. Painting by George Tobias, 1792.
The words to this Australian poem could have been written at almost any point in history.
The skies depicted therein could have been the dawn skies of late 1642 above Tasmania’s Bruny Island, as Abel Tasman’s ship passed silently by. It could be the daybreak behind Captain Cook's ships as they sailed into Two Tree Point on January 27, 1777.
These lyrics could just as easily be describing this morning’s daybreak at Two Tree Point. The place looks almost exactly the same as Tobias's painting.
It is not hard to imagine the daybreak in this song is any of the million seen by Tasmanian Aboriginal people before coloni-settlemen-vasion, or the many thousand new days since.
For what it's worth, they were penned by Banjo Paterson in 1914.
The skies depicted therein could have been the dawn skies of late 1642 above Tasmania’s Bruny Island, as Abel Tasman’s ship passed silently by. It could be the daybreak behind Captain Cook's ships as they sailed into Two Tree Point on January 27, 1777.
These lyrics could just as easily be describing this morning’s daybreak at Two Tree Point. The place looks almost exactly the same as Tobias's painting.
It is not hard to imagine the daybreak in this song is any of the million seen by Tasmanian Aboriginal people before coloni-settlemen-vasion, or the many thousand new days since.
For what it's worth, they were penned by Banjo Paterson in 1914.
Two Tree Point. Image courtesy of atasteoftravelblog.com/
