Bourke - Poet's Trek

[Neville Briggs]

just a fact of life on the land

Really !! Are you sure of that ? How many bush poems are made on the premise that lfe on the land is more that JUST a fact. If we accept a reductionist idea that life is just facts then where is there room for passion, tragedy, enjoyment, triumph and exultation, after all those things are the stuff of poetry Marty.

That place was once an expression of hope and vision, now it's turned to dust. That is not JUST a fact, that is a tragedy.

[Hully]

All a matter of perspective. I am with Marty though, it is a fact of life, whatever human emotions we overlay it with don't change that.

It may be a tragedy that the dreams of a few were unfounded, and it was a harsher reality that woke them up, but its a fact that those dreams have inflicted untold and irreparable damage to a fragile and ancient landscape, and arguably a far greater tragedy for being fact and not fantasy.

I look at those ruins and I don't pity them, I pity us who bear the legacy.

h

[manfredvijars]

Farming native animals such as emus and kangaroos makes enviromental sense but is not palatable to the general population nor is it necessarily practical.

Emus, AKA Bush Chooks, taste like duck but I couldn't eat a full one ....

[Neville Briggs]

Marty, Hully. You've missed my point. It was the modifying word " just " that I stumbled over.


Anyway, I guess if old Henry Lawson or Will Ogilvey could somehow pass by and see Toorale to-day they would would be appalled. If I remember rightly Henry Lawson already saw decay setting in, in some of the country places and mourned over it.

[r.magnay]

Not all the ruins you encounter are a sign of failure either, the farm I grew up on was one of the larger in the district, the homestead was about 2 miles from the origional homestead which was still owned by the same family as the one who built the origional one. Many of the other ruins around the country are the result of properties being bought up by neighbours as farming practices 'improve' or become more efficient, the parties who sell are often the end of a family line or just someone who has made his lot out of it and wants to move on, no sign of failure, simply a sign of change....there are of course many which are the remnants of failed ventures, generally though they are the smaller less viable blocks taken up by larger landholders when the little ones can't make a go of it.....and Neville...I knew exactly what you meant and concur...

[r.magnay]

...actually Manfred, it is a long time since I ate emu but I remember it being more like beef than duck!

[Neville Briggs]

Ah Marty I try not to confuse physics and philosophy.


There's another thing up Bourke way, Ross, that when I was up there always made me feel a bit sad about how things have gone.
That is the railway line from Nyngan to Bourke.

Dead straight and flat, 200 kilometres of toil and sweat by the men who built that railway. And I assume, though I don't know, that Henry Lawson travelled on the train along there. It is left now, rusting and falling to pieces.
There's still a railway station at Bourke, last I knew.
I don't know what it is used for now, it was a sort of tourist office when I lived there.

I think that shutting down the rural railways in NSW was a huge tragedy for the country.
I suspect that was part of the reason for the demise of places like Toorale ( I could be wrong )

[william williams]

Emu chicks caught when young were tasty in the old camp oven tasted a bit like beef but not quite.
fresh Emu eggs made good rock cakes and sweetened bread good tucker
Emu meat for the dogs fattened them up
but beware of all three and stand up wind when your windy nature takes its coarse

bill Williams

[Dave Smith]

You’re right there Bill. Shell could of made a quid out of Emu cause they are full of oil and GAS…

TTFN

[Neville Briggs]

Manfred, have you got any pictures of Ford's Bridge or Hungerford.