My 86 year old Uncle sat at the table the other night and recited this poem to me word for word with the emphasis in all the right places. I had heard him in my childhood days say it around the camp fires at family gatherings in the bush, yet I was too flighty to pay attention, let alone understand. I am now 38 and he has been diagnosed with dementia.. So to have had the honor to hear it late that evening bought tears to my eyes. As my mother had always taught me "the road down hill is an easy one and thats the way they went" somehow, I always understood what she meant, yet to hear it in the poem, so metaphorically, has touched me immensely. This was the first reference to come up when I typed in the wrong spelling. After reading "The man from Snowy River" by Banjo Paterson an Australian bush poet from the 1800 who also wrote our unauthorized yet recognized National Anthem Waltzing Matilda (sung before every international sports match after our National Anthem Advance Australia Fair) Out the back of Bourke is a Very Australian slang saying. As Bourke is one of the last stops before the Simpson Desert. This is where one of my Uncles a true bushy had a sheep station. A very hard land indeed. The harder the land the deeper the soul.
Thank you for helping me find the words.