If we knew you then, would our vista be

One of tents and mines and mullock heaps

Of cross-cut saw, savanna cleared

Traversing camel, cattle and sheep all here?

 

Or further back, ‘fore ships arrived

With strangers from afar

Mountains, trees and river flows

A people sunned, of this land a part?

 

In season’s change, see broken hearts

As we witness the affray

Of black and white, and northern lands

Sons and daughters lost – to our dismay

 

Survey across the ages past

From foot to cart to rail

Motorcar on bitumen

Paddle wheel and long road-train

 

Cereals grown, produced en-masse

Pork, beef, milk, and mutton

Flooding rains and rivers

Drought lands, dry and sullen

 

Vines and wine and food galore

Families here, longstanding

Visitors who come and go

Some returning through each season

 

Tractor, header, combine, ute

Wine and pies and cars

Building’s from another time

New ventures yet to start

 

Rutherglen, our long-time home

Evolving over time

Preserved in memories passed along

Through picture, story, song and rhyme

 

Gina Schmidt 8/7/2015 – Written and recited for Arts Rutherglen 

 

Image 1: View along Autumnal grapevines

Image 2: Sun setting below a hill, silhouette of a tree in the foreground

Image 3: Wintery, showery view along a fence line, from the gate post into the paddock (field) beyond

Image 4: Canola crop in flower, blurred trees behind

Image 5: View along old timber fence posts combined with new and rusted wire, sun setting in the distance

Image 6: A young steer peering suspiciously through the mob

Image 7: Remains of a tree once living amidst a green crop, canola crop in flower behind

Image 8: Early morning sun rising, seen through the naked branches of a once living tree

Image 9: Old timber farm machinery in the grass, beneath the trees on a side road

Image 10: Old windmill and overhead tank on stand