Soon the pioneers followed
        And on one fateful day
        MacArthur saw the virgin forests
        And then sailed into the bay.
        He sought those stands of timber
        On which the cities must depend
        And along that pristine foreshore
        Nature's balance had to bend.

         Now in the name of progress
        We know, all things must change
        And in the clear felled pastures
        Dairy cattle came to range.
        The township, which now prospered
        They called MacArthur Bay
        And the Native population
        Knew the whites were here to stay.

        With the dawn of a new century
       The wheel of time revolved
       And just like the threatened dugongs
       There were problems to be solved.
       With the timber now depleted
       The township soon regressed
       And the elders struggled earnestly
       So this challenge, be addressed.

        Thus a vision, splendid
       For MacArthur Bay evolved
       And for many of the townsfolk
       The problem, seemed to be resolved.
       But the citizens divided
       When the blueprint was explored
       For in this grand development
       The plight of dugongs, was ignored.