Australia, the Land of Vivid Contrasts, from the frigid snowfields of arctic Kosciusko to the sun-kissed groves of tropical Queensland.
From rich pastures, literally flowing with milk and "money", to outback plains upon which grim drought has laid its devastating hand.
The parched earth is cracked by the Pitiless Sun... and rivers and smaller watercourses have completely dried up.
Motor cars are as essential to the squatter of today as horses were to the squatter of yesterday.
There are two sorts of women: good ones and bad ones. The bad ones are never found at home, and the good ones are never found out.
The early kookaburra catches the snake.
Heigho! But those were battle days,
and hungry days and hard
with carcases with bones
picked bare at every turning met.
Lean steers upon the cattle camp,
lean horses in the yard,
And bitterness, and dreariness,
and hunger, drought and sweat.
[William Henry Ogilvie]
A jazz band – a jingery, jiggetty, jingling joy.
Drink to the pursuit of pleasure! If Hell claims us at dawn, let us be merry tonight!
For it's raining, raining, raining!
How the iron rooftops ring!
How the waters, swiftly draining,
Through the straining downpipes sing!
Every drop a golden rhyme is,
Every shower a stanza strong.
And each day of raining time is
Canto sweet of God's great song.
[E. S. Emmerson]
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