Australia's Cultural Heritage: The Federation Drought
I like it when people take different sides in politics - the further from my own position the better! And I realise that people will willfully close their eyes to facts to defend their views. But something in me dies every time Australians ignore their own cultural heritage. By all means panic about the environment, but do prove that you know about the Federation Drought: even if only from our poets and authors!
I first learned of the Federation Drought when reading the Billabong series by Mary Grant Bruce - IIRC "Norah of Billabong" is set during the drought (1894-1902). The records for heat, for cold, and for lowest rainfall were set during the 1890s and have never been broken - and no, not this year, despite the claims being trumpeted across the internet.
Those terrible times inspired our writers during a golden age for Australian literature. Banjo Paterson's poems are probably the most famous, here are snippets from just two of his poems:
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/withthecattle.html
The drought is down on field and flock,
The river-bed is dry;
And we must shift the starving stock
Before the cattle die.
https://www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au/resources/articles/SongOfArtesianWater.html
Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought,
But we're sick of prayers and Providence - we're going to do without,
With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below,
We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
As the drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level,
If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil;
Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down.
And of course Henry Lawson wasn't going to let Paterson reign supreme without a fight;
another snippet:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/lawson-henry/the-song-of-the-darling-river-0022021
The skies are brass and the plains are bare,
Death and ruin are everywhere -
And all that is left of the last year's flood
Is a sickly stream on the grey-black mud;
The salt-springs bubble and the quagmires quiver,
And - this is the dirge of the Darling River:
While Henry Kendall was there to prove that Emo is nothing new:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-underneath-the-brown-dead-grass/
When underneath the brown dead grass
My weary bones are laid,
I hope I shall not see the glass
At ninety in the shade.
This is just a teensy sample of what Australians were writing, when
dealing with far worse environmental conditions than we can imagine.
The first few of the Billabong books are now available online:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bruce/maid/maid.html
I first learned of the Federation Drought when reading the Billabong series by Mary Grant Bruce - IIRC "Norah of Billabong" is set during the drought (1894-1902). The records for heat, for cold, and for lowest rainfall were set during the 1890s and have never been broken - and no, not this year, despite the claims being trumpeted across the internet.
Those terrible times inspired our writers during a golden age for Australian literature. Banjo Paterson's poems are probably the most famous, here are snippets from just two of his poems:
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/withthecattle.html
The drought is down on field and flock,
The river-bed is dry;
And we must shift the starving stock
Before the cattle die.
https://www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au/resources/articles/SongOfArtesianWater.html
Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord has sent a drought,
But we're sick of prayers and Providence - we're going to do without,
With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below,
We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.
Sinking down, deeper down,
Oh, we'll sink it deeper down:
As the drill is plugging downward at a thousand feet of level,
If the Lord won't send us water, oh, we'll get it from the devil;
Yes, we'll get it from the devil deeper down.
And of course Henry Lawson wasn't going to let Paterson reign supreme without a fight;
another snippet:
http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/lawson-henry/the-song-of-the-darling-river-0022021
The skies are brass and the plains are bare,
Death and ruin are everywhere -
And all that is left of the last year's flood
Is a sickly stream on the grey-black mud;
The salt-springs bubble and the quagmires quiver,
And - this is the dirge of the Darling River:
While Henry Kendall was there to prove that Emo is nothing new:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-underneath-the-brown-dead-grass/
When underneath the brown dead grass
My weary bones are laid,
I hope I shall not see the glass
At ninety in the shade.
This is just a teensy sample of what Australians were writing, when
dealing with far worse environmental conditions than we can imagine.
The first few of the Billabong books are now available online:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bruce/maid/maid.html