ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Bout time I did me bloody homework! I had a quick look at the prompts and they sorta coincided with an idea I've been tossing around, so I thought I'd give it a crack.


Quinkan Country.
(c) Martin Pattie. 30/8/12

Heard about that Quinkan Country?
An uncanny sort of place,
escarpments carved from sandstone
fill the deathly quiet space.
And brolga's stand like sentinels,
they dance but by decree,
amidst the plains that once made up
an ancient inland sea.

Take me out to Quinkan Country.
That bonny golden lure.
A timeless old affliction to which
no one's found a cure.
We scoured all those gullys
and we choked on Palmer dust,
with the relics of a distant rush
cacooned in ancient rust.

I dreamed a dream in Quinkan Country.
Nightime with no moon.
The totem of the dingo howled
which brought on the monsoon.
And all the land it came alive;
the flying foxes danced.
The serpents wailed from Red Bluff
and the emus were entranced.

Dont leave me here in Quinkan Country.
For all the gold its worth.
There's something watching from above,
and spirits in the earth.
There's cockatoos as black as night
you hear but might not see,
and just a glint of sun-bleached bone
amongst the stony scree.

Just get me out of Quinkan Country!
For fear I'll grow not old.
The wintersun, it chills my skin,
the campfire leaves me cold.
And rum and river water
isn't doing what it should.
Just get me out of Quinkan Country,
and get me out for good.

This is an interesting write. I was totally unfamiliar with the area of which you write so had to Google and it appears to be an area rich in aboriginal significance and an area that to my eyes appears beautiful.

Did it really cause such feelings of disquiet within you or was that a bit of poetic licence? Your poem is strong and even the black cockatoo and other species come across as perhaps acting outside the norm, who knows - perhaps unwelcoming ancestral spirits linger in that area, but it appears it was a place that you were not happy to be in.

It made me wonder

Cheers

Maureen

Pure poetic licence Maureen, it is fantastically beautiful and alluring country . . . but it does have a dark and sinister side. Anyone who's been to Quinkan Country could vouch for it's beauty. There's some of the biggest rock art gallerys to be seen. The gold is a bit further south . . . but there's lot's of stories told old and new floating around that country - some of them even true .

Cheers, Marty

Good write Marty.
I have never heard of the place but you have set me to wondering.
Cheers
Sue

Hi Marty
Don't Know of that part of the country Either, although I know the Palmer story, Good Yarn!

Yep I reckon we all should do a bit of homework, it can be a lot of fun.

Terry

Anything that sets you to wondering is got to be a good thing, Sue

And I know you'dve heard a few good Palmer yarns, Terry. Goodonya, mate.

Cheers, Marty

Hi Marty

I was enthralled with your poem. Nice work! I do a bit of work with indigenous people and am fascinated by their stories and the different parts of their culture. Your poem, Quinkan Country, conjures a feeling of eeriness and perhaps uneasiness!
I too, will also have to google some information about this country. Thanks for that as I believe it will be a worth while exercise.
Thanks also to Maureen who gives so freely of her time to set the homework. Although I do not contribute often, I enjoy the work of others and often write bits and pieces for myself!

Cheers for now!

Dot

G'day Dot,

Pleased to hear you were "enthralled" with my poem. Thanks.

You are right about the eeriness and unease I tried to convey. Quinkans are Aboriginal spirits - and that country is beautiful and majestic but there's this underlying sense of danger and I guess having read a lot of Percy Trezise's books as a younger bloke whenever I visit Quinkan Country I love the places, but there's just something else that tweaks my senses.

Cheers, Marty

Marty, In answer to the question in the first line..No.

I think that you have made a good approach for the theme, you have brought in imagination and feelings which I think is the stuff of good poetry. I was wishing that you could have given an image of the landscape , you pictured the animals in detail, but I don't get a feeling of the country apart from escarpments carved from sandstone, probably because I don't know it.

Good write Marty ...

I had a book by Percy Trezies(sp) a former pilot with Bush Pilots Airways (BPA) who, along with his mate Dick Roughsey recorded and photographed many of the galleries for the Queensland University. Unfortunatly I loaned out that book and haven't seen it since.

Dick Roughsey wrote and illustrated a couple of kids books with some of the Quinkan legends

Quinkan Country is also on my list of must visits.