JACK HOWE - The man and the legend

[Maureen K Clifford]

Jack Howe – the man and the legend

He came out of Killarney on a morning damp and cold
in July eighteen sixty one or thereabouts we're told.
Dad was a circus acrobat, though now he juggled stock.
The Catholic Priest was happy there was one more for his flock.

Young Jackie grew up quick as country kids are wont to do.
He chopped the wood, and fed the stock, trapped rabbits for a stew.
The years swung slowly by, this young bloke grew up fit and strong,
and set his eyes on foreign shores ...he would be gone ere long.

New Zealand beckoned to the lad...there's sheep here for the shearing
and so young Jackie Howe set sail from our shores disappearing.
But home is where the heart is and the young bloke he returned
and settled down in Blackall where his life around he turned.

He ringed the shed in ninety two out at 'Barcaldine Downs'
more than two hundred head he sheared 'neath Sunbeams whirring sounds,
then one month later 'Alice Downs' saw him set tally higher;
three hundred twenty one were shorn with blades. He was a trier.

Our Jackie was a big bloke weighing in at eighteen stone,
with feet the size of shoe boxes, yet light of foot it's known,
he won prizes for Irish dance, stepdanced to 'Galway Bay'
in soft soled shearing moccasins when fiddlers would play.

Long days of shearing took their toll, so Jackie bought a pub
in nineteen hundred. Known for cold beer and good home cooked grub.
The Universal seems 'twas known as a pub of renown,
then he purchased the Barcoo – now he'd two pubs in the town .

His family was growing he had eight kids overall.
'Sumnervale' and 'Shamrock Park ' were bought - both near Blackall.
At heart still a gun shearer, liked to see sheep on his pasture
but the years were catching up now and the days seemed to go faster.

In nineteen twenty Jackie died – July the twenty first.
This big bluff friendly bloke who became famous for his shirt.
He was but fifty eight years old a man still in his prime
but shearing takes its toll on men, and more so at that time.

Outside the Universal site on Blackall’s country street
stands Jackie with a ram, in stone, forever wrestling sheep.
A park in Warwick displays a giant pair of hand-held shears
depicting the link that Warwick town and Jackie held for years.

He was a family and union man, a member of ALP.
A gun shearer, mate and publican, a dancer too was he.
So remember, when you see a bloke whose singlet’s navy blue,
it's a Jackie Howe he's wearing – Jack's a legend.....Story true.

Maureen Clifford ©


Somewhere along the line these blue singlets have become known as Wife Beaters an American term I suspect - but they are still referred to out west or at least places where I have been as Jackie Howes, and Warwick is rightly still proud of the connection with this great man and gun shearer.

[Dennis N O'Brien]

Yes my father always wore blue singlets as do I quite often.
I didn't hear the term "Jackie Howe" until I joined the army
- a mate of mine from Goondiwindi used to use it.
Well done Maureen.

[Rimeriter]

"Thanks Maureen".
Tells me a story I was not aware of.
Jim.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thanks Jim and Dennis - I love writing about our countries history - reckon if schools had taught it via a a poetic medium more kids would know it today.

[Rimeriter]

I couldn't agree more.
In another forum earlier I mentioned - Poems of Australia by Fred Wills.
Just completed my reading of it today. Many of Fred's writings SHOULD be read in class.

Just wish I could share them with you. But I was told I would be infringing his copyright were I to reproduce them for ABPA consumption.

"Thanks" again.
Jim.

[Robyn]

Well done Maureen. I love to hear our history told like this.
Robyn

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thank you Robyn - me too - and we have a rich history so I guess inspiration will always be there - well it will for me anyway