I eventually found a hand written copy of the poem in Grandpa's documents in 2011. So now we have another source. The transcription is below :
THE FIGHTING PIONEER
There in Heath's plantation where the slender palm trees wave,
Where the cocoa trees throw shadows they dug Mick Eddy's grave,
A requiem was sobbed in the silent day,
As with sadness moved the Pioneers to Lae.
They knew they would see him fight no more,
In battle or the roped-in square,
He had taken the count in jungle war,
Had the fighting Pioneer.
'Twas Rafferty's Rules in wild combat,
No audience to please,
As the ‘wood peckers' spoke their rat-a-tat,
And the Brens spat from the trees.
Queensberry was forgotten, gloves gave way to lead,
No resin on the canvas, it was jungle mud instead,
No seconds out, no swish of towel, no sounding of the gong,
Scrub replaced the stadium and grass grew coarse and long.
No referee to see fair play, men were battle mad,
He took the count the front line way, did our Victorian lad,
He was KOd in the ring of war, the fight for Australia's cause,
Where maddened weapons sounded time and mortars barked applause.
Where the kunai spreads its mantle and the slender palms grow tall,
Where the kokomoas fly northward as the evening shadows fall,
And the western sky turns crimson at the end of a tropical day,
The Pioneer champion lies asleep on the winding road to Lae.