Bushie

[Terry]

G/day Manfred,
I don't reckon you have to live in the sticks to be a bushie, I also Reckon quite a few on the forum are bushies at heart.

I always think of most people I meet in the smaller towns as undoubted bushies, they have that sort of relaxed persona if you know what I mean.

Maybe it's just a state on mind mate.

Enjoyable read.

Terry

[manfredvijars]

Thanks Dave, Marty, Dennis & Terry ... The problem I have with these sort of discussions is that they can imply a 'degree' of Bush-ness. These days many of us are slaves to opportunity - or lack of it.

Paterson was city based as a practicing solicitor then a journalist/correspondent. Nowadays we could fall into the trap of saying, "Bloody lawyers and journos wouldn't have a clue about the bush!"

Rather than try to determine (or justify) how 'Bushy' we each may be, we should just enjoy our writing (and sharing) and get on with our individual "Australian" (poetic) experience ...

[Terry]

It's that word BUSH Manfred,
back in the days of Lawson and co there wasn't bush poetry they wrote a lot about the bush, but like us, also wrote of other things and it was all thought of as Australian poetry.

Bush poetry as we call it now is a fairly new thing and in fairness I guess when it started up it was mostly about the bush.

So How about 'The Australian and Bush Poets Association' a bit of something for everybody.

Cheers Terry

[manfredvijars]

It's a hard call Terry. As a teen-angel we lived in what was then considered the 'bush'. It was nothing to pop down to the river after school to chuck a line in and pick up a redfin or two. Or grabbing the .22 to knock over some bunnies for a stew on the way back from fishing if they weren't biting.

Later I'd travel and work in the 'bush', from the working on the Snowy, to the canefields at Ingham, to Giles weather station, to Balladonia on the Nullabour and to the MacArthur River on the Gulf. A completely different 'Bush' working experience compared to the FIFO brigade. For them it's almost like a regular commute from home to work and then back home again. Air conditioned and insulated dongas as temporary digs are in stark contrast to living on site in tents and sheds with no TV and air conditioning. Limited generator power (if any), woodfired stoves or campfires for the cooks, kero lanterns for lighting and cold showers with Sunlite soap ...

Doubtless many of our mob would say, "That's not working in the 'bush' - they're just 'commuters'!" Maybe that's so, but it's still their (the FIFOs) "Australian" experience. I can't help but wonder how they will tell their stories.

(FIFO - Fly In, Fly Out)

[Bob Pacey]

Whole lot of hulla balloo over nothing as far as I'm concerned.


Bobby Millers True Australian says it all.



Bob

[Terry]

G/day Manfred,
You sound like a bushie to me mate.

cheers Terry

[Neville Briggs]

When I worked in the Police Station in Sydney, as I went out the door to do a job the station officer would solemnly intone to me " It's a jungle out there " so I reckon since I survived that I must be a genuine bushie .

[keats]

'Bush' to describe our Poetry in not much different than having 'Country' to describe our music.

Neil