We visited the Pioneer Village in inverell, NSW, where buildings and artefacts have been relocated and reassembled to create a tableau of days gone by. It never ceases to amaze me how those corset-clad women raised hordes of children in tiny bark huts - often with husbands working away for months or years at a time.
THEIR LEGACY
(c) Shelley Hansen 2024
We gazed at far horizons underneath a starlit sky –
a pleasure that’s eluded us this year.
With caravan attached once more, we traced untravelled trails,
rejoicing as we “revved up into gear”.
We came upon a village recreated from the past,
which captured changing times from early days
when slab huts were the shelter from the heat and bitter cold
and labour marked the blueprint of their ways.
The school room sat in silence, children’s footsteps long since gone,
the hotel bar devoid of beer and rum.
No loaves of bread from ovens, ploughs without a horse to pull …
yet still I seemed to hear a distant hum.
The echo of activity still lurks within these walls,
the chatter of old mates, a helping hand,
a kettle in the kitchen always filled and on the boil.
I listened, and began to understand.
Though times have changed and we have left behind the roaring days,
the pioneering spirit will survive.
So let us pay respect to those whose courage paved the way
and pledge to keep their legacy alive.
