 In 2003 I won the title of "Female Champion Australian Performance Bush Poet". No one present
could have been more surprised or unprepared than I was to be awarded this title. But it ignited
a fire which has consumed my life ever since.
I had a wonderful childhood growing up on the banks of the Clarence River at Grafton. As a
teenager I wrote a few
poems and learnt The Man From Snowy River and The Highwayman. Drawing, painting and horses were
my passions.
I had great aspirations of being an artist so, after completing high school, I enrolled at Art
College in Newcastle, NSW. I'd almost completed my first year there when I met Rod. We
eventually married and, after moving around Australia and living in Malaysia, ended up in Perth,
WA. We went into business and all my creative juices dried up as we struggled to cope with young
children, a factory and numerous employees. Thirty years passed. Rod was coerced into joining a
local branch of Rotary. The guest speaker one evening was Keith Lethbridge, one of Australia's
outstanding Bush Poets. Both Rod and I were instantly converted into Bush Poetry fans. We joined
the WABP&YS Association, started performing and, three years later, I found myself, parch-mouth
from nerves, competing in the National Championships at Mullewa.
People have great expectations of a Champion, expectations which I felt ill equipped to live up
to. But it started me on a journey which altered my life dramatically. Rod is a natural
entertainer. Together we created a venue for entertaining people with Bush Poetry and yarns on our
ten acre property at Oakford, WA. This has since expanded into tours in our little bus into the
outback of WA, staying in country pubs and shearing quarters, all the while spruiking verse at
every opportunity. We have performed at some amazing places, from campfires to theatres, from 2
people to 2000, for fund raisers, clubs, schools and nursing homes. The list is endless, as is
the satisfaction and fun we draw from each performance and show.
It still puzzles me how the shy, introverted person I was can now happily take the mike and
entertain. But what puzzles me most of all is ...how does a sieve-head like me remember all these
poems!?!
Kerry Lee's poem The Child & the Horse
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