Monday, June 02, 2003
It’s been a hectic week, but exciting at times. Thursday I went on my first Royal Flying Doctor visit to a small service town called Hungerford, just across the Dog Fence on the Queensland border. In just under two hours I saw a phenomenal 50% of the paediatric population (4 kids!). Then we did a quick tour of the town, including the Dog Fence, which is the longest fence in the world. Built along the NSW border it is supposed to keep rabbits, dingoes and “other vermin” out of the grazing lands in NSW, and is still patrolled by boundary riders. Personally though I think that sheep are the biggest “vermin” destroying land in NZ and Oz.
more photos are at: http://au.photos.yahoo.com/piokiwi
Yesterday I went on a walk across Lake Pamaroo. The Menindee lakes not only supply water to Broken Hill, but are the subject of many iconic photographs showing tree trunks rising moodily out of the water at sunset. I had set my heart on taking some of these photos, but due to the long drought and some burocratic stuff-ups there is very little water left in the lakes (thus the undrinkability of water in BH). So I took some photos of a dried-up lake bed instead.
Speaking of BH, I wrote a quirky poem:(which is one of the first not on the subject of Casey)
Xmas in May, Broken Hill style
Santa drives a sky-blue Volvo
He dropped by the hospital today
Blue eyes hiding behind straggly brows
Stained beard bursting out the window
Mrs Claus was in the back
wearing a floral housedress
her day off I suppose
She christened the garden
with a fairy-like wave of her cigarette,
then creaked open the door,
squeezed out, and
handed Santa a crutch
as he got out.
He only had one leg.
BH 8.5.03
Piokiwi 12:30 am
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