About nine o’clock we saw the first smoke stain the far horizon

A soft rolling shroud of shifting white cloud above the mountains rising

Uneasy and afraid, we watched and we prayed as the clouds grew ever higher

But an hour before noon they’d blocked out the sun, and the mountains were on fire

Bushfire. Ah, ah, bushfire

And all through the gloom of that long afternoon, the fire fed and grew stronger

Driven by the wind, it danced ’long the mountain rims, roaring out it’s anger

Fed by the breeze and the helpless trees, consuming those who bore it

It raced pell-mell from the mouth of hell, destroying all before it

Bushfire. Ah, ah, bushfire

Our farm, our home, and all that we owned lay in the path of that fiery river

We prayed for rain, and we cursed the wind as it drove our destruction nearer

But no words of men can bring down the rain or set the wind to turning

And around midnight we’d lost the fight,and our whole farm was burning

Bushfire. Ah, ah, bushfire

Through the smoke and the heat came the crying of the sheep as the flames set their wool on fire

They ran terrified, they roasted and died, their own fleece their funeral pyre

So we packed up and ran while the fire’s red hand reached hungrily out to find us

While so long and hard to build and so quick and easily killed, our dreams burned down behind us

Bushfire. Ah, ah, bushfire

Arrogant man, he squats upon the land, he buys and sells and zones it

Plants his seeds, cuts down his weeds, and imagines that he owns it

For 20 years our land we cleared, we ploughed and we sowed and we tamed it

But where the bushfire has passed, there’s only black ash, and Nature has reclaimed it