The Truth of Isolation: response to a Ziln question.

Thsu in Furillin, wearing Vampire slayer boots and Caterpillar socks in S.L. (which can be reached on a sealed road).

“Why did you write, ‘Korda is isolated?’ What is so special about Korda? What is so special about Wyalkatchem? Wyalkatchem is just another ordinary wheatbelt town!” He threw these words out like a man on bitch-fodder. One of the local kids had a rash and I wanted a GP to quickly have a look because I had advised he shouldn’t go to a birthday party. I didn’t want to say so, but this looked like a light dose of chicken pox. 

The stories behind the gold rush towns are fascinating and colorful but we also have to remember that they were rife with hardship and disease. Many a poor barstard  spent weeks and months walking with a wheelbarrow to the goldfields hoping for wealth and just as many died from typhus and venereal disease. Before the railways reached the tent cities and before planned townships were settled, the bakers were usually the most vital business during the gold rush. In hindsight, wheat and water were  worth more than gold. 

In response to response to that particular doctor’s question, I humbly reply:

1. Well, you cannot purchase a pair of socks in Wyalkatchem. I had to drive to another town to purchase 3 pairs of Caterpillar socks in Dowerin for the princely sum of $34.00. I have to admit that they are bl**dy nice socks. 

2. You can’t purchase a pair of shoes in Wyalkatchem; in fact, I wear ‘ Rocko’ thongs that I bought in a petrol station in Harvey, a few hundred km away.

3. You can’t purchase a pair of underpants in Wyalkatchem and Korda but you can get them from Northam or have them shipped in by Australia Post. 

4. Korda and Wyalkatchem are isolated. Laverton is, I agree, m o r e  isolated  but you have to own a four-wheel drive or be rich to get to Laverton. Our communities are built on the bones of hard working farmers that feed the nation and we have sealed roads so you can get here in a cheap car. Our Nyoongar families are beautiful and share their stories with us. 

5.And…we give the kids the best stickers.

Urgent notice: Kings Park Skyworks for Australia Day 2017

The Skyworks have been cancelled tonight due to a tragic accident on the Perth Swan River involving a light plane. Two people have died in the river crash. Prepare for traffic delays. 3 hour delays between the north side and south side of the river are normal on Australia Day, but there is still traffic coming into Perth. Take your time. Go & have a coffee or a beer in the city and leave a bit later. It's too hot to lose your cool.

A poem by dheborah: BLACK COCKATOO TRIBE.

BLACK COCKATOO TRIBE

Red rings for eyes,

held he

the dead chick

In his black beak.

The tribe drank from the broken concrete

Bird baths

in my back garden.

Two years I waited

After

Silent black cockatoos came two,

at fourty degrees and three.

Two winters. One summer.

Sixty seven nights, and

One dawn.

 This year

Fifty intoxicating, black and white winged chess pieces

 landed around me,

Bringing me

bird turmoil.

They chopped off my flowers.

A poem : 'Stainless steel bobbin case'.

illustration by Dheborah

‘Stainless steel bobbin case’

By Deborah Quirke

An equi-distant, circumferential silver mask

with one gaping black eye in the centre of my face.

My nose flips open to one side.

A door covers my string-like brains.

I am neat. A miniature, 

rocket-launched, unpowered, revolving space shuttle 

but 

my soul 

is merely a coil.

My face latches on to 

an uncomfortable machine all day  

and 

I 

can’t 

             breathe.