"As Leichhardt Saw It Then" lyrics

In the days of great explorers
Ludwig Leichhardt rose to fame
He saw this country's beauty
Before the settlers came
The water holes were full of fish
He saw the emus run
And wildfowl rose in millions
Till they hid the rising sun

He camped among the woodlands
Untouched by white man's hands
Swam unpolluted rivers
And trod their unmarked sands
The wild sand of the bushland
Soaked deep into his chest
His horses grazed new pastures
As he headed north by west

Let me take a page from history
And write this land again
Or I'd like to see this country
Just as Leichhardt saw it then

He didn't that know that progress
Would rape this virgin scene
And change the face of nature
With pests and foreign weeds
He couldn't see as we have seen
Our topsoil disappear
From fires and overstocking
And scrub being pulled each year

His vision never pictured the future would unfold
The side of old car bodies and litter on our roads
Back where the silent blue gums stood
And native bears would peer
We now hear rows of traffic like an insult to our ear

Let me take a page from history
And write this land again
Or I'd like to see this country
Just as Leichhardt saw it then

Perhaps there's few of us who care
Or dream about the past
We're busy doing better with our modern ways so fast
But should they grant to me a wish
Before I meet my end
Oh, I'd like to see this country
Just as Leichhardt saw it then

Let me take a page from history
And write this land again
'Cause I'd like to see this country
Oh I'd like to see this country (yeah)
Oh I'd like to see this country
Just as Leichhardt saw it then