Droving Women

She buried him down on the edge of town

Where the brigalow suckers on the cemetery creep

She stood with them children in a heavy brown gown

What you want you just can't always keep

"I'm sorry," I says, "Well , I knew him so well

Though your body is young, just never can tell

When the hand of fate rings the final death knell"

She just turned with the saddest of smiles

She says, "At the start, well, we knewed it so hard

We were always dealt the severest of cards

Honeymoon spent droving Jamieson's stock

Through the wildest winter you seen"

Romantic notions of horses and land

They were soon dispelled as a fantasized dream

Watching cattle at night in the mid-winter cold

Turns a person both wiry and old

And the flame of the breakfast fire'd be dead

As the sun rose up, he'd be miles ahead

I'd be breaking the camp there and rolling the beds

While he fanned the stock wider for feed

When the weather turned sour with the onset of rain

And the truck'd bog down to the axle mains

He'd move ahead with pack saddles and chains

And I'd wait in the mud by the road

With the blankets and canvas there hung out to dry

With nothing for heat 'cause you couldn't light a fire

With no stock permit for the forthcoming shire

The dogs'd whimper in the winter wind rain

And cattle don't camp when they're sloshing in rain

They keep walking all night like a dog on a chain

He'd be red-eyed and weary with a pack horse gone lame

I'd sit miles behind in the mud

And it was down through Charleville, up to Julia Creek

Living on syrup and damper and salted corn meat

We had nothing but the 'roos and the mailman to meet

We'd move up and down with the rains

But them inland skies have the starriest of nights

With the dance of the fire throwing flickering light

The beauty of its sunsets were a constant delight

I felt nature had let me intrude

The enormous vastness of them inland plains

Gives you a lonely contentment to which you can't put a name

It's a satisfied glow city folks seldom attain

They spend life on a right rigid rail

And the kids got their schooling from the government mail

We posted their work in at each cattle sale

They considered the learning a self-imposed jail

They'd rather help their father and fail

Early last month, at the end of the dry

He was given a horse nobody could ride

Alert were his ears with a fire in his stride

He was young and his spirit was wild

To catch him each morning was an hour-long battle

We had to collar rope his near side to throw on the saddle

He'd bite and he'd strike, he made my nerves rattle

Pandemonium reigned with each ride

It was a hot summers' morning at the government bore

There was a stillness around I'd not felt before

How could he know it was fate at his door

That was stealthily watching his moves?

He mounted up quick, taking slack from the reins

Grasped a full hand of hair from the horse's long mane

He'd just hit the saddle when the horse went insane

Churning dust in a frenzy of fear

And the girth on the saddle let go at the ring

And the surcingle slipped, it was impossible to cling

The horse felt it go, made a desperate fling

He was thrown to the length of the reins

I heard his spine snap like a 'roo shooters' shot

He'd busted his back on the concreted trough

Sickness and fear were the feelings I got

For the doctor was a six hour drive

I looked at his face, and his color turned white

He turned slowly and said, "I can't make it till night

My body is broken, I'm bleeding inside"

And the life slowly drained from his eyes

I'll sell up the plant, and I'll move here to town

Before the winter returns with a chill on the ground

For what I've just lost can seldom be found

And I was blessed with the gentlest of men

And eventually the children will move to the east

But I couldn't stand the bustle, even a quiet city street

I'll stay in the scrub here, where my heart really beats

For some dogs grow too old for change