No adverse comments from the first, I attempt another; COLOURS OF COPPER On the edge of Tigrony an open wound now lies A once hidden heart exposed to the skies The veins once enclosed now opened wide Left torn and bleeding until this mountain died With a final gasp its secrets are gone Its final treasures were stolen not won What really was taken will never be known >From desperate greed desolation has grown The leaf of the Maple left the craters behind Long since gone but still in the mind Of miner's widows and others who cared A generation of thoughts that are rarely shared Bridge of white amidst the ochre stained land In a valley of green like an emblem so grand The profits have gone but riches remain Colours still with us now claiming the fame >From the depths of the valley the treasure is gone But Avoca's true beauty will ever go on Soaring falcons replace the circling vulture Birds of prey but of a far higher culture The noise and dust now so long since left The blasting and hammering within the cleft All gone but for the holes in rocks and hearts Lifetimes of toil exchanged for far easier starts A wooden symbol now guards over with care The two mountain sides laid waste and left bare Nothing to give at the cost of more lives No worn out miners and no worried wives The valley lies tranquil now fully at ease Just as its waters are mingled in peace Daz Beattie 3rd October 2002. The last mining attempts in Avoca were made under the direction of a Canadian Mining Company in the early 1960's, when the deep mining following of the copper ores failed, final attempts were made as if in desperation to blow the mountains apart in an opencast search.