The downside to living in Geeveston is that it’s a long bus ride from anywhere you’d want to go, and several places you wouldn’t.  This is a song about that, to the tune of Stan Rogers’ Northwest Passage.

February 2022

Ah, on just one bus I will take the Southern Outlet
Down past the town of Franklin, where old-timey sailors roam
Tracing one long line round the winding bays and inlets
All from the Southern Outlet to my home

Southward riding Tassielink, King Edward sees me off
To crawl the length of Davey Street, the engines whine and cough
Striving up the Outlet, past the doomed South Hobart homes
To do barely eighty in the hundred zone

We deviate to Kingston, not a road I’d choose to take
Though here’s a good Dave’s Noodles if there’s time to catch a break
Then back upon the Huon, at that gaudy overpass
And up to Vince’s Saddle, now we’re valley side at last

To the town of Huonville, past Willie Smith’s we ride
The bus stop’s next to Centrelink, the library right beside
But I’ll remain determined, even Franklin passes by
My destination nears as south we fly

How then is my home different from the townships down this way?
Like them, it’s seen some riches, though there’s not so much today
But past the pillared gateway, in the town for which I yearn
I find my loves awaiting my return