These few lines were written after reading one of C.J. Dennis poems, a letter to the front.

Composed in 1915 and relates to the First World War.

Last two lines of third last stanza :

'The days to come when we don't need no bonzer boys to fight.
When the flamin's picnic's over and the Leeuwin light looms in sight.'


       The Leeuwin Lighthouse
        Flinders Bay, Australia

Borthwicks

The Aussie drovers
Halted at Taree
Hotel, hitching rail
Cabins for sleep
All in wood

Table,ewer,basin
Chipwood water heater
Ironstead bed
Clean white sheets
Were slept in

Breakfast eaten early
Scrubbed pine table
Could seat twenty
Two fried eggs
On T bone steak

Sun baked earth
Dusty, grassless
Acres of flatness
White fenced
Acrid smelling dung

Shuffling, forlorn cattle
Non seeing eyes
Flaring, twitching nostrils
Breathing
Death's odour

Herded together
Before a ramp
Their last paces
Through a door
Into oblivion

Chilled beef
In cardboard boxes
Loaded into hatches From Parramatta river
Liverpool bound

Frozen mutton carcasses
Identically sized
All muslin clad
Countless pallets
Were swung aboard

Stacked in tiers
Number three hold
For Gladstone dock
Sunday dinners
With mint sauce

A seaman's life
Depicted by Conrad
Has gone
Containers,graceless ships
Time is money

Does man benefit ?
Profound and lasting
Friendships
Maybe are no longer
Slow down, slow down

For time to observe
Earth's diminishing beauty
To ponder.
Who made it all ?
Hark my words

Harry Simpson - 30th June 2010, in hospital, Marseille




M.V.OTAIO Borthwicks, Parramatta river, Brisbane.
Maiden Voyage
Photo taken by Peter Lloyd, Wireless Operator, NZSC°