We looked at Clunes and the surrounding areas and felt the peace and serenity. We felt its warmth, even on the winters day. The countryside reminded us of quaint english villages and provoked memories of pea and ham soup, log fires, babbling brooks and gumboots.
Deborah and I were transported to a cliff of contemplation about our current nine to five work drudgery and a more meaningful lifestyle, at a soul full pace, at one with nature. Had we been of unlimited financial means, i don't think we would have donned the cheesecloth hippy attire and rejected the capitalist motifs straight away. We knew this journey would be the content, the visceral sinu of experiential "flow". It was to be savoured, every challenge to our beliefs, attitudes and being, to be nurtured, appreciated, celebrated or mourned as may be the subjective experience at any given time. I was reminded of the lyrics to Clancy of the overflow, and their poignant meanings. I have included the words below, and while i embraced them, i am equally as cautious of ever taking on a red-neck cowboy persona, which i find equally, if not more disturbing as the urban city slicker countepart.
CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW
(Andrew Barton Paterson) Redgum Also recorded by: Slim Dusty; Tex Morton.
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge,
sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago;
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just "on spec", addressed as follows: "Clancy of The Overflow".
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumbnail dipped in tar);
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving down the Cooper where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him,
and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night, the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For the townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I'd somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal
- But I'd doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy of The Overflow.
The McIvor Times:
Heathcote fire stillunder investigation
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A fire at a property in Tehan Court, Heathcote, last week is still being investigated by police, although it is no longer considered suspicious.Crews from Heathcote, Mia Mia, Costerfield, Pyalong and Mt Camel were called to the blaze around 2pm last Tuesday.
The fire gutted an old shed which had been converted into living quarters.
The property is owned by a Melbourne man who was not at the property at the time of the blaze.
Heathcote fire brigade captain Colin Thompson said it took 35 minutes to bring the fire under control.
CFA fire investigator Alan Eley said Bendigo CIU was investigating a `possible electric cause' of the fire.
``There was a battery connected to a light near the door on the east side of the shed that we are currently investigating,'' he said.
The fire gutted an old shed which had been converted into living quarters.
The property is owned by a Melbourne man who was not at the property at the time of the blaze.
Heathcote fire brigade captain Colin Thompson said it took 35 minutes to bring the fire under control.
CFA fire investigator Alan Eley said Bendigo CIU was investigating a `possible electric cause' of the fire.
``There was a battery connected to a light near the door on the east side of the shed that we are currently investigating,'' he said.
