Norfolk Island: Archie Bigg

Available for over a year

The Norfolk Pine by Archie Bigg For more than a million years they stand Planted with care by Father Time, Tended with love by nature's hand A beautiful tree, the Norfolk pine. And through their branches the white birds play As above they soar and twist and climb While deep below the rich moist clay Holds fast the roots of the Norfolk pine. In the year of seventeen seventy-four Captain Cook, explorer fine Walked the untrodden forest floor And he told his king of the Norfolk pine. "I have", claimed he, "in my travels vast 'Neath a southern sky where bright stars shine Found a suitable tree for the yards and masts Of His Majesty's ships, in the Norfolk pine". The settlers came from a distant shore With a strange new sound in a bygone time The voice of man with his crosscut saw As he took for his use the Norfolk pine. And in anguish nature's hands were wrought. Be patient, friend, said Father Time. But man took all and he gave back nought Though it served man well did the Norfolk pine. Then a new generation of man was born And he looked to the future beyond his time Then he planted the hills that before were shorn And he planted the valleys with Norfolk pine. Thus he looked at the forest with different eyes, At the beauty there of a tree so fine As it speaks to the wind with a gentle sigh, A beautiful tree is the Norfolk pine.