ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Bushie
(c) 2005 Manfred Vijars

Oh to turn back the clock Mannie - nice piccie - anyone we know???

I gather Manfred that was takes proberly 30 years ago

Quiet good Manny in fact Manfred very good.
As I can see by your verse you have seen it while in holiday mode and that’s not laying back sipping latte but holidaying in the bush and enjoying the novelty of your holiday time there shooting and travelling around to new places, places of interest.
And good on you those times to you were great and gave you a good inside feel of this land.
But the true feeling of this land is more than what you say it is hard to describe with my simple grasp of words but simple words can describe it best when you live with the feeling that what this country gives you when you take her in your stride with no demands.
Just like a good marriage you take her through her good times and her bad with her sickness and her health (famine and floods). she's cruel and harsh yet she's kind she's ruthless yet she's tender, she is Australia.

Bill Williams the old battler

Can't quite understand what you're trying to say here Bill as I don't ever recall sipping a latte, or the last famine ...

Good poem. Times certainly have changed. I'm just glad I got to see
some of those out of the way places and experience them before the big changes
and can at least now write the odd verse about them and those times, as you do.

G'day Manfred, I think Bill is trying to agree with you from an old drovers point of view!....perhaps comparing the bush to a good marriage might not have been the best choice of comparisons...
I think being involved with the bush as you have certainly qualifies as a bushie as much as any other form of interaction.
Banjo would have been happy with that I reckon.

Thanks Rosco ...

Thanks Ross a lot as you have understood what I was saying

MANFRED you did not read what I have said and that’s not laying back sipping latte and famine is where things are at their worst and flood is when things improve afterwards

Thank once again ROSS

Bill the old Battler

I think that our romantic notions about just who is more 'bush', are at best, a little bit skewed. Whether it's a drover (or any other farm worker), tradesman, solicitor or journalist, Australia encompasses them all and who is to say that one is more 'bush' than the others.

I guess the same applies if you happen to sip latte, billy tea or a sweet little 18 year old single highland malt. ...

Good poem Manfred, I know how you feel we’ve lived in a nice cottage in a nice town now for more’n 20 years now, but once you have the bush in ya blood then she is there to stay, we try to get out there once a year at least and smell the wood smoke drink Billy tea and try not to miss ya double innerspring mattress. There are all types of Bushie from the hard tack prospector the station hand n drover to the blokes (and sheilas) who just tramped around doing what ever job that was out there, driving bulldozers for some oil mob or serving beer in an old pub in a one horse town that had more dogs than people. but it’s like I said to Stephen get on ya back and gaze at the stars, Mate, an’ you’re out there.

TTFN