HOME POEM

JUST a great little poem.. author unknown. 

 The sketch on the left is of a canecutters cottage.   I actually drew this building from memory.  I was  in Jaspar in the Canadian Rockies.  We were staying in a beautiful bed and breakfast overnighter.   

I had done a  sketch of this beautiful log cabin.  I did not want to part with it.  The owners wanted  it.  I compromised and drew this cottage with the animals out front.  The Canadian couple loved it. 

These people were breeders of  tiny ponies.  I have photos to publish  later. 

This is how  they, the cottages, all looked back in the hand-cutting era of cane harvesting by hand.  Everything  was in a state of disrepair, but I bet there were a  lot of people in the Mackay area grew up in a house like this.  I came to Mackay in 1966.  Mechanical harvesting was just taking off.  There were still cane cutters in the  area.  

There life  was  cutting by hand from June thru to December or longer.  THEN sitting in a pub having an easy life on their savings.. That is of course if they haven't taken off fruit picking down at Shepparton in Victoria.   

Today there are many people who are originally from Shepparton that live in Mackay. There are many people from Mackay that have continued to live in Shepparton.