Something of value

1. That white Australians are all safe and sound, while aborigines are suffering. White Australians don't really care about them, because there happy.

2. White Australia took it by force, "We took it all by the gun and the sword". White Australia were more powerful. They also took it cause as 'white' they saw themselves as the better people, "By the right of our race and in the name of God".

3. Because they were white and christian and the aborigines were black and pagan.

4. Because they were exiles themselves, they were treated badly and they treated the aborigines worse when they shouldn't have.

5. Drunkards, wastrel, whores

6. The opportunity to have a new life, new hope, new land, they can start all over again, "To build something of value, something to last".

7. That it was not all as good as it seemed. Its not paradise for the aborigines they were still suffering.

8. The poet urges us to make what happened different. Time to change and do the right thing. Make up for the last 200yrs with making the next 200yrs better.

9. Australia represented as a place where convicts came in and took away the native peoples land and lives, calling it there own. In the end, behind the pain there is still hope for Australia and making it better for the people of it.