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 THE TRAVELING LIFELONG BUSH POET

AWAY BACK IN AUSTRALIA'S EARLY DAYS



This is how it was for many in all honesty ONCE.


In the very earliest days in the colonies
After the convict thing had almost past~
It was anything but easy for so many then
For a successful dye to cast~
So very many a battling family
Lived away out in the country then~
In a little old bark and timber home made hut
To call it home away back when~
Made of mud floor and self cut timber slab
Lanterns hanging low from rafter~
A big old home made tin or stone fire place
Where around it regardless was music and laughter~
They made their furniture then from the scrub
Hessian beds of bags stuffed with straw~
Tied together with wire or the likes
But determination they had galore~
A little block and little stock
Milking cows and a horse or two~
Working ever hard about and in the yard
To survive and make each day right through~
Honest hard working English and Irish families
That had ended up there for a better life~
And lived a life of hard work and hardship
Maybe with some any luck to be maybe take a wife~
Within their little bark huts they'd made
Each mum and dad , son and daughter~
And all praying for a little more rain
So they could collect their only water~
The smell of wood fire smoke within their home
They'd all plan their day to come~
But no matter how hard some families tried
Injustice it was often done~
There was these battlers and then a very few so rich
And not a lot of ground much in between~
Regardless how some of these families tried
The lowest to some they were often seen~
If something was to go wrong in town
The authorities made it so very clear~
It had to always be one of this lot
Of this they had no fear~
There was seldom any explanations given
The law then was simply the law~
No matter if they were right or if they were wrong
These battlers were considered walking the same floor~
There were a few that were not as honest as should be
Out of all that were about within the day~
But almost all of these battlers were hard working folk
That only wanted to work for a living and to earn a pay~  
There were those of course that had so much as well
With land so rich and ever vast and fine~
And all those that struggled to find their daily bread
There was not much middle ground or line to find~
Many a mothers heart was broken back then
And daughters lived the hardest ever life~
Working harder then than many man today
And very seldom ever to be a rich mans wife~
The sons they were strong and with character
Doing all for family that they could ever do~
Working along side of their fathers and others
From before dawn till day was through~
So many a young colonial lad back then
Only ever wanted to get ahead~
And prove how hard that he could work each day
As to keep himself and his family fed~
But so often if a crime it was committed in town
As said often the law without asking then at all~
Would mount up and ride out to some battlers home
And pay these families yet another call~
They almost always blamed the same ones it seemed
Each and every single time~
No questions asked that's how it was
Back in those days and way down the line~
Young blokes not afraid of hard work at all
Many never then got a chance it's true~
As if you were then within a battling family
The law then always thought that best they knew~
So many a good young man died in jail back then
For crimes he had never done~
And others simply hit the road
Never again to see their dad and mum~
Some then were chased away blamed for crimes
They never ever did commit at all~
To survive turned into what they called bush rangers
And remained so till the day they thus would fall~
The odds were for many mostly stacked against them
If you were not a family of well to do~
Away back in the earliest days for many battlers
Thad's how life it was it's true~
Many wrongs were done to ever so many
Who only wished then to survive~
Work hard and one day earn some respect
Sometimes to simply remain alive~
Times then were not easy at all away back when
In the early days of have and have not~
Many a true story was never ever told
And way much more many has simply since then forgot~
So many of the convicts then as well
The ones that came before~
Were sent out there for stealing a loaf of bread
To feed the very ones that they adore~
It took ever so long for things to change
For battlers back in that time~
When mostly all they ever wanted was to be allowed
Without trouble or blame to survive and walk the line~

Terrence Michael Sutton
Copyright 2008


 







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