Andrew Fraser’s poem reflecting on his involvement with the Anti-Fracking campaign in solidarity with the Indigenous Gomeroi people near Coonabarabran

The poem below came out of my involvement with the anti- fracking campaign currently being waged by unionists, farmers and environmentalists in solidarity with the Gomeroi people. We are concerned about the impact  of drilling 800 gas wells in the Pilliga.I was honoured when Gomeroi Elder, Auntie Sue Ellen invited me to read the poem out loud round the campfire in Coonabarabran, on the day the Matildas defeated France in the 2023 World Cup.

The New Cooee March

  As torture tools tear Country’s flesh apart,

The brave Gomeroi refuse to lose heart;

Coal seam gas fracking wrecks artesian bores

That in her dry realm, the farmer abhors;

Once pristine streams desist diseased and dead,

Defiled by banes from washed coal bled; 

          State- licensed thieves from land its riches take

And emit carbon that doth planet bake.

Then from bush to city boardrooms they march,

Rich, poor, left, right, black and white and greenie,

Calling Cooee as heard in Hallow’d Arch,

In this cause all as Aussie as Bluey!

And swell mining pickets at Pillaga,

As diggers held the line at Kokoda. 

A C Fraser 12/08/23

         (Dedicated to Russell Sharp)