POEM: The Ballad of Mandurah's Old Traffic Bridge | VIDEO

The crowd had all gone silent

As the time had almost come

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The moon was right, the tide set to turn

So begins, the Mandurah prawn run

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We had jostled for position

With some poor sportsmanship displayed

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But we now wait that moment

Which has had us here all day

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The old traffic bridge was loaded

Long handled nets and Tilley lamps

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While the luckier among us

Launched their craft at our boat ramps

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It all happens very quickly

Idle water starts to shift

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The nearby boats take one direction

As they lose their sideways drift

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A splash and then another

It quickly becomes a roaring din

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There’s a swirling of the sand below

As the prawns begin to swim

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The nets are flying left and right

Colourful language fills the air

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There are prawns enough for everyone

Some want more than their fair share

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Buckets are soon brimming

Filled with prawns, with crabs and fish

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It has been the kind of Mandurah night

Where you’ve fulfilled a childhood wish

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For this bridge has been an icon

And stories of these nights are regaled

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We’ll tell the children of these nights down there

And recall them in detail

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For soon it will be done no more

As its time has almost past

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Sixty years of service to our people

You stood faithfully ‘til the last

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You’ll be consigned unto our history books

But in our memories you will stay

~

Forever ‘The Old Traffic Bridge’

This City’s heart for all our days.