The Unsung Heroes

They are the women who changed their life

To become an outback bushman's wife

Some come from the city

And a profession may have had

May have been a secretary

Or a model good or bad

They cook wash and teach the children

All through the day they toil

May even drive a tractor

To work any kind of soil

A neighbour may be one hundred miles away

To her that is no worry

She is too busy baking bread

Or making a stew with curry

Their first shelter may be called a shack

But that is the starting point

Of the battlers of the great outback

But as the family grew

Tradesman came and built a dwelling new

Their mail comes once a month

By the packhorse mailman at the station gate

But flooded creeks and duststorms often makes his arrival late

She has a dark girl for a companion

From the camp below the homestead on the creek

The only soul she would know

If help she had to seek

The pedal radio the way they communicate

If a child is sick or an accident

The royal flying doctor will arrive

Or give some orders which she has to undertake

The years go by as time does fly

Her children who she taught upon a stool

Have come of age that they are sent

To some city boarding school

The roving padre sometimes makes a call

Which brings much joy to them all

Being the outback man of god

Many a lonely path he has trod

They seldom take a holiday

Their tasks do not permit

From dawn to dusk its just the same

But to them it matters not a bit

Their husbands would be away for days

To a muster far out on the run

She has become the overseer

To see all the tasks are done

Now you may think their life is strange

To those who live by the sea

It is their choice to live that way

The friends and hardships to them so dear

If you think these lines

Are a little hard to bear

Take a tip and read the book

In the middle of nowhere

Eric Munro Glen

7/5/01

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