Droving Woman

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, "I knew him so well" Though your body is young you 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 fantasised dream Watching cattle at night in the mid-winter cold Turns a person, both wiry and old The flame of the breakfast fire'd be dead As the sun rose up he'd be miles up 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 An' 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 dog'd whimper in the winter wind rain Cattle don't camp where 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 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 lights The beauty of it's sunsets were a constant delight I felt that 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 satisfied glow city folks seldom attain They spend life on a right rigid rail 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' mornin' at the government bore There was stillness around that I'd never felt before How could he know it was fate at his door That was stealthily watchin' his moves He mounted up quick taking slack from the reins Grasped a full hand of hair from the horses long mane He'd just hit the saddle when the horse went insane Churning dust in a frenzy of fear The girth on the saddle let go at the ring 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 colour turned white He turned slowly and said "I can't make it till night My body is broken, I'm bleedin' 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 I was blessed with the gentlest of men Eventually the children will move to the east But I couldn't stand the bustle of 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.