Daisy From Mungindi.

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Daisy was just a simple girl, she came from Mungindi,
where parched earth is all around, until it meets the sky,
a land of endless flies and heat, where rain is hardly known,
and the Barwon ambles sleepily, by banks of sand and stone.
Just normal scenery for women, who were outback grown.

Daisy had a husband tough and Charlie was his name,
the father of ten strong kids, was his biggest claim to fame.
Each day was spent in the saddle, his normal daily grind,
tending mobs of cattle, a better horseman you’ll never find.
Just a normal day’s work, as outback men are so inclined.

Dauntless, Daisy stayed at home, the ten kids she raised alone,
fetched water by the bucketful, over paddocks drier than a bone.
Sunday dinner was a grand event, plenty heaped upon the plate,
but always at the hardwood table, Grace was said before they ate.
Just the way things are done, by those outback women great.

And when the drought continued, as droughts always tend to do,
food was in short supply, so they lived on possum, birds and ‘roo.
They ate the prickly pear fruit, and emus took an hour to chew,
cockatoos had to be boiled all day, when making “Cocky Stew”.
But that is not unusual, just things the Outback women knew.

Prickly pear ran rampant, nothing stopped the invading scourge,
smothering barren earth, until sky and horizon seemed to merge.
Fire had no real effect and it grew faster than one could cut,
engulfing all in its way, including the whole of Daisy’s hut.
Surrender is not an outback word, and stuck in Daisy’s gut.

So to the city they all went, and Charlie traded horse for truck,
worked in the city noise and grime, with his usual stubborn pluck.
Daisy toiled and raised her brood, as they settled into city ways,
until WW2 loomed large before and made dark their future days.
But fighting was a part of them, for those outback folk amaze.

Daisy waited five years for them, her heart full of pain and sorrow,
proud heart in her chest, fearing a telegram come on the ’morrow.
Six sons went off to war and six came back safe and sound,
they had fought the invading hoards, that were Australia bound.
Those women taught their sons to treasure their Outback ground.

I never heard her complain or worry, about the perils of the world,
she took each problem head on, whether it curved or spun or whirled.
She always had a kind word and the time to give a happy smile,
Though she had endured hardships, she was brimful of guts and guile.
That is the way they were, those outback women of our Aussie isle.



.A tribute to my Grandmother Daisy Thompson.
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