John Warner, 1998
Born in the highland snows
Wild in her youth's descending
Swiftly she fills and grows
Out on her floodplain, winding and bending
Feeding the towering gums
Bush in creek and gully
Sharing her bounties wide
Spreading soil in plain and valley
Murrumbidgee fair, Murrumbidgee fertile
Nurturing at your breasts we who walk here for a little while
High on a ridge we stand, gazing in love and awe
Over the lands you made with your gentle hands
How rich the gifts you pour!
Over her years of floods
Current twisting wild and strong
Children she made in the land
Creek and anabranch, pond and billabong
Bright on the wide floodplain
Glints the rippling water
Proudly side by side
Flow the mother and the daughter
We have known the drought, we have seen her anger
Hurling trees in her rage, we've borne thirst and we've borne hunger
Yet for us who seek, beauty waits in hiding
In some shaded pools wait the fruits of her providing
Silver mist like hair
As the day is dawning
Marks the river's way
As we hunt on a winter's morning
Duck and cod from the stream
Fruit and fungus, plant and seed
Kangaroo on the plain
See, she gives us all we need