Lullaby is based upon one of the number of indigenous Australian melodies collected by Dr H.C. Lethbridge during the 1930s and is a lullaby for children victimised by war. It opens with several statements of indigenous melody, the words lovingly entreating children to embrace sleep, as night falls. This is followed by a short central section that questions the need for war, its text taken from another song in the Lethbridge collection. The melody then returns, leading to a quiet coda, suggesting the calmness of sleep and, for many children, the beauteousness of Paradise.