A Bushman’s Song
(By Trix Quinn)
I have wandered with my cattle
With my sheep and horses, too,
I have lived in drought and famine
On the creek that’s called Barcoo.
I was twenty when I started,
I could ride a horse full speed,
I could drink a pot of beer,
And go without a feed.
One year I took on “Mailman”
Along the Castlereagh,
I remember still what happened,
To this very summer day.
The flood waters were swirling
For the Barcoo broke it’s banks,
My mare was near exhaustion
The water beat her flanks.
There came a cry of sorrow
As a child came into view
A mite of very fragile form,
I’d say she’d be just two.
I seized the tiny floating child,
And rubbed her small white hand.
My mare gave one last gasping moan
And sank dying on the sand.
Now I am left to wander alone
Along the Castlereagh
To think of my poor dying mare
And of that dreadful day.
Source:
The Longreach Leader (Longreach, Qld.), Saturday 21 May 1932, page 22
[Editor: Corrected “Mailman’ to “Mailman”, (using a double, not single, closing quotation mark).]
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