Readers of Red Jack and the Ragged Thirteen will be interested to read this haunting poem by Mary Durack, which became a popular children’s book (still in print). The story told in the poem was sparked by a chance meeting between Mary’s father, Patsy, and Red Jack in Western Queensland.…
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Sit closely, old friends, and I’ll spin you a yarn, ‘round the glow of a redgum log fire.A true story of death in the tropical north, when Tom Griffin gave rein to desire.He gave rein to a need that surged in the night, bold with a gun in his hand.It…
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When I get old, too sick to breathe,carry me down on the river breeze,to some outback creek all brown and still,and on those banks I’ll die fulfilled. Sit me down in a gum tree’s shade,with a pack of those smokes I gave away.And an esky filled with ice cold cans.I’ll…
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The old fella inhabits a prison made of white walls. They’ve taken his stained felt hat because someone complained, but he doesn’t remember it. Nor the moleskins, or denim and checked shirts that he donned every morning of his life. Now he wears drawstring trousers, and a loose shirt of…