[Editor: This is section 7 of “Barcroft Boake: A Memoir ”, by A. G. Stephens, published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]
[Letters from Currawilla and Windorah]
On 11th August Boake writes to his father from Currawilla, Q., reciting some of his first droving experiences —
… We are kept going so continually that it is with great difficulty I can snatch these few minutes to let you know I am alive. We are on the road now with eleven hundred head of cattle for Cunnamulla, from Devonport,* Diamantina river. We were five weeks mustering on the station.
… The cattle have to be watched all night … I am lucky, and have the first — from six to eight. Still, as we are going from before daylight of a morning, it makes the hours pretty long. Fourteen hours a day I reckon I have in the saddle, straight off.
… Still, this is the only life worth living that I see. No more New South Wales for me, except for a visit. This is the only place where a poor man can get a cheque together in a short time…
And the letter closes with ‘love to Grannie and the girls.’
To this period of his life Boake always looked back with keen pleasure. He was now 23 years old, in the prime of youth. No portrait gives a complete idea of him, but at this time he was changing from the bright lad suggested on page 164 to the more thoughtful man of whom one gets a hint in the frontispiece. Boake matured slowly, and to the last there was a touch of boyishness in his nature and appearance. In figure he was slim and loosely-knit, rather tall than short. ‘He looked infinitely better on a horse than off,’ says his friend Raymond. His eyes were dark, his hair dark-brown, almost black; and his face was made remarkable by a deep scar on the right brow, the result of a fall in childhood. I have called him ‘listless, shy, moody, dispirited.’ Listless he seemed often in the Monaro days , and sometimes dispirited; but rather reserved than shy. The moodiness came later.
On 29th August the mob had reached Windorah, and Boake writes —
Dear Father … Enclosed you will find a note in pencil. I don’t know if you will be able to decipher it. The day I wrote it I was very sick, and was bad for three days with a touch of a fever they get out here. At present I have very bad eyes from the flies and dust: everyone gets it.
… This is a regular dog’s life. Breakfast by starlight; with the cattle till dark; then get up in the night to do two hours’ watch. Still, it has its charms. As a song of ours says —
Still his wild, roving life with its hardships is dear
To the heart of each wandering bush cavalier.About those letters of intro. It was very good of you to go to so much trouble about me. I don’t deserve it, really. I am very sorry I never got them.
… Give my dear love to Grannie and the girls. I often think of you on watch. I am getting good wages; and with a bit of luck, if I get in so far this trip , will see you for a few days somewhere after Xmas. — Your affectionate son, BARTIE.
* Apparently Davenport Downs.
Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp.
Editor’s notes:
The reference to “page 164” is regarding the section of text beginning “Barcroft grew up a sturdy lad”; see Section 1 of the Memoir by A. G. Stephens.
Editor’s notes:
dog’s life = a drab, miserable, soul-crushing, wretched existence; a hard life (conversely, the term can also refer to: an easy life, a life of laziness, a pampered existence; derived from the life of an indulged and pampered dog)
intro = an abbreviation of “introduction”
mob = a large group of animals, especially used when referring to cattle, horses, kangaroos, and sheep; also used to refer to a group of people, sometimes — although definitely not always — used in a negative or derogatory sense (possibly as an allusion to a group of dumb or wild animals), but also used in a positive sense (e.g. “they’re my mob”), especially amongst Australian Aborigines
station = a large rural holding used for raising livestock, usually sheep or cattle (a pastoral property); can also refer to the principal homestead and main business centre of a pastoral property
See: “Station (Australian agriculture)”, Wikipedia
Xmas = an abbreviation of “Christmas”
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