NEWELL HIGHWAY
John Warner (1985)

This song celebrates the Warrumbungle Ranges in inland NSW. John first heard the tune, C.H.H. Parry's melody for the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,' in his earliest childhood as a theme to a BBC radio programme, and it is adapted here from that memory.

Awake before the dawn within the spires of range
Where magpies ornate melodies
Engrave the chilly morning breeze
Beneath the towering stone,
Beneath the towering stone.

On nights of silver moon too rich to waste on sleep
In silence make your way to seek
The choirs of frog in swamp and creek
That sing beneath the stars,
That sing beneath the stars.

Out on the western plain beside the roaring road
Where trucks snarl by without a care
Are billabongs with ibis there
And wedge-tailed eagles soar,
And wedge-tailed eagles soar.

All you who love the earth
And make her ways your choice
Cry out against the noise of trade
Demand that silence should be made
So that all might hear her voice,
Her ancient, matchless voice.