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THE PRICE OF PROGRESS

 



An old friend from another land

Came down to visit me

And we journeyed into Brisbane

For he planned the sights to see.

Around the river reaches

The skyline came into view

Passed underneath the Story Bridge

Where it all spread out on cue.

 

This modern day metropolis

Which now must rank as great

Has really only grown so fast

Since Expo ‘Eighty Eight’.

Awed by tall skyscrapers

And the cosmopolitan array

Scattered iconic stone facades

The brief history portray.



















Exploring the great city

Would take us many hours

To stroll past classic structures

Among the soaring office towers

And twas walking down one city street

That Harry said to me

Just two hundred years ago

How different this would be

 

We strolled through such diversity

That was the Queen Street Mall

And came across King George Square

The site of City Hall.

While we paused and looked around

A young woman stopped me there

To talk for her Society -

Of the wilderness in our care.


 
















I did not have the patience

To enter into her debate

But it later on occurred to me

All her sentiments did relate

For with every new development

There comes a hidden cost

As trees and bush are cleared away

A part of Natures lost.

 

Spreading roads and highways

Connect the vast suburban sprawl

With ever growing industry

Hungry to consume it all.

We must maintain the balance

Or the world may end bereft

And what would be our future?

When too little of its left.

 

                Rodd Sherwin