THE PASSING OF THE GULLY 27 



But it has been all in vain. The wreckers have heeded 

 none of them, and the work of destruction has continued. 

 They have driven in their pegs, made signposts of saplings 

 and pieces of paper, blazed big gums and turpentines, chopped 

 ruthlessly at native cherries and she-oaks, and turned the 

 happy sanctuary into a place of terror and pain. 



And they are only the forerunners, just a token of worse 

 things to come ; for soon will come the builders, the carpenters 

 and bricklayers, plumbers and glaziers. They will come with 

 their dray-loads of bricks and mortar; big bonfires will be 

 made of the red-gums, grey-gums, and the turpentines; new 

 paling fences will take the place of the clematis-covered logs ; 

 and fowlhouses will rise where once the shy whip-bird brought 

 out her young. The little ground orchids will make way for 

 pansies and freesias, the dillwynia and tecoma will be ousted 

 for cactus dahlias and stock. The birds which have filled the 

 bush with beauty and song will fly away in search of peace ; 

 another of the few remaining bush spots will have been swept 

 from our city ; and my gully my dear, beautiful, sun-kissed 

 gully will have passed into the land of memory and dreams. 



