Windflowers by Tamara McKinley

Author:Tamara McKinley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000 FICTION / General
Publisher: Quercus

10

The drought took a firm hold and the women of Warratah battled for survival. Water was down to a trickle in the rivers and billabongs, the water-holes becoming clay-pans that could trap a beast and kill it as surely as a bullet. The earth became hard-packed, the miserable grass bereft of any goodness as the herd was moved from one pasture to another in search of better fodder. The only water available for the stock had to be pumped from the bores – and even some of those were dry. The outback was dying – and with it had come disaster.

Dingoes and crows became bolder and more predatory. Trees wilted, their boughs dipping earthward as if they too were exhausted from the heat, and as the rabbits devoured the poor grass, mobs of kangaroos and emus invaded the home pastures that still had bore water, and they had to be shot or scared away to preserve this precious commodity for the cattle.

The three women camped at night with the Aboriginal stockmen around a fire, the hard earth their bed, the sky their ceiling, saddle for pillow. They were armed with knives as well as rifles, for the poor beasts were dying, and there was nothing worse than the sight of a crow pecking out the eyes of a calf as it ran stumbling and screaming in blind terror. A swift slash to the throat was the most merciful way of putting the beast to rest, and it saved on bullets.

Ellie was surprised to find a growing admiration for Alicia. For after her initial horror at having to work from sunrise to dark, Alicia had grudgingly become accustomed to leaving her cosmetics behind. She’d filed her nails to a more manageable length, let the grey tendrils snake back into the blonde hair and no longer seemed to care if she had to face the day without lipstick.

There were certain tasks even Aurelia couldn’t make her perform, such as helping with the spaying, or castrating, but Ellie realised she was doing her best. It had been strange to see mum in the same clothes day after day and stranger still not hearing her complain. Perhaps there really was something to the British stiff upper lip, she thought wryly, for Alicia and Aurelia had proved they were as tough as any Aussie.

Yet there was something awe inspiring about the harsh splendour of this outback world despite the privations they were forced to accept, and as another Christmas and Ellie’s nineteenth birthday approached, she realised her mother had actually come to look forward to patrolling the fields. She had even struck up a rapport with Jacky Jack and the stock-boys and as the nine of them moulded into a team, past hurts and disappointments were put aside.

The radio was their most immediate link with the outside world, and every night one or other of the women would return if possible to the homestead to catch up on the news which was then relayed to the others.

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