Heart Country by Kerry McGinnis

Author:Kerry McGinnis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781742280264
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2002-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

It was good to be back. Larry came rushing to meet us, whiskery jaws barking a welcome as I reined Mary-Ellen in by the horse yard and stared about me. The lawn had spread amazingly – the tin shed now sat in a patch of vivid green, which was darkened by the shade of the rain tree. There were finches bathing in the broken camp oven under the tap, and red flower spikes on the cannas I had planted by the gate. The wild plum at the stock tank was starred with blossom, its scent heavy in the still air. I sniffed it in, and half a dozen cattle stringing in on the pad over Little Sandy paused to stare as I pulled my saddle off and swung it over the rail. I was glad to be back. No more basin baths or sleeping on the ground, for a few months anyway.

We bought a stove and a washing machine that summer and branded our first calves. The stove was a double-oven Crown with a ten-foot chimney length and curved steel legs, big enough to handle shearers’ meals. I had chosen it from the Queensland Pastoral Supply catalogue and had it railed up from Brisbane to Cloncurry. The mailman brought it out to Gregory, and Dad and Patrick drove in to pick it up. They had already boxed in a section of the shed floor and laid a concrete slab to receive it. While it cured, a slow process requiring frequent wettings, they returned to the fencing the job had interrupted. They were building a stallion paddock for Ferdy and the brood mares, which meant the existing big paddock would be available for Judith’s use. She could start seriously looking for a sire and mares for her pony stud.

Sian had left by the time the stove arrived. He had taken the drill rig up to Riversleigh and was working there. Dad had accepted his decision calmly enough, although I think it had come as a shock to him. He had gone still when Sian broached the matter with him, looking down for a long moment at his plate and the meat he was cutting into as if he were wondering how it had got there, then he shrugged, spearing the piece onto his fork.

‘If it’s what you want, I can’t stop yer.’ And while the dishes were being washed they had worked out the details of the hire of the boring plant. Sian had already quoted for the hole at ten bob a foot.

‘’s not enough,’ Dad objected immediately. Judith gave an exasperated sigh, but for once Sian refrained from arguing.

He left straight after completing the third bore on Yeldham, which he named Trubbidy, after a character in a book he was reading. It was a deeper bore than the others, but the water, though in plentiful supply and suitable for stock, tasted vile.

‘Think he’ll come back?’ Judith asked as we were watching the rig head out towards the Lawn Hill road.

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