ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Maureen Clifford © The Scribbly Bark Poet



When you’re out working in the bush, working hard as you must,
pulling scrub with a dozer in the heat and dirt and dust.
When the water bag is warm and the day is hot and dry,
thoughts of Billy tea and damper puts a sparkle in your eye.

A cold beer would be better but it’s early in the day
and you’re feeling parched already, in your throat dust turns to clay.
You can’t imagine anything to better hit the spot,
than a slice of fresh cooked damper and tea in a pint pot.

You stoked the fire this morning and there’s now a bed of coals.
The Billy won’t take long to boil, hanging beneath crossed poles.
The dampers ready to go in those coals that spit and hiss.
When cooked, slather the Syrup on...Who eats better than this?

Before you know it, city folks spend fifteen bucks a day
on five dollar cappuccinos, creamy chai teas and lattes.
Out here in the country you can fill a mug right up
and it sure beats a teabag in a polystyrene cup.

Folks here drink their tea straight black, in pint mugs with no froth.
Spread damper with fresh butter, with sweet syrup dripping off.
You’ll not find better tucker from restaurant or chicken fryer,
than Billy tea and damper made upon an open fire.

Over the years Maureen we spent months in the western area doing our shows and each night cooked billy tea and damper for the tourists.

When we head bush Chris always makes bread ad damper and washing it down with black billy tea is pretty good.

Enjoyed the sentiments.


Merv.

Yes indeed, Maureen! You know today we understand the value of drinking adequate water daily, yet my grandfather, an old Queensland timber man, would ride and work all day in the bush with no other liquid but a quart pot of black tea secured to his saddlebag. Summer and winter, he wore a woollen flannel under his shirt till the day he died.

When I worked in electricity design we had a team of designers who also did field surveying work. It was their tradition to take with them, not a thermos, but a billy - and to boil it up with tea leaves, toss in the gum leaves, and swirl it in traditional fashion before drinking.

Cheers
Shelley

I think most bushies still do that Shelley - and they can whip up a fire in no time as well to get the billy boiling. I'm not a tea drinker but confess a mug of billy tea with a good squirt of condensed milk (I know - sacrilege) was always enjoyed.