Alexander Vindex Vennard (1884-1947), collected yarns, ballads and anecdotes about bush life, which were published for about twenty-five years in a regular column 'On the Track' for the "North Queensland Register" and "Townsville Daily Bulletin". He adopted the pseudonym 'Bill Bowyang' after the straps buckled over trousers below the knees.
Tommy
By "Bill Bowyang."
Written in 1922.
Whenever I arrive at Proserpine I generally look up my old friend, ———— who is trying to grow cane at Kelsey Creek. Tommy is terribly absent-minded. I remember when I was in Proserpine last year, he went into town with a list of provisions his daughter wanted him to get at Faust's store, and she also reminded him to meet his wife at the train. The wife had been visiting Bowen to see where the Steel Works were to be built. However, —— is a popular man, and in Proserpine there are many bars and many bottles on many shelves, so when he drove home at dusk, with all his groceries under the seat, he left a zig-zag track behind him. He was met at the sliprails by his daughter.
"Where's Mother?" she said.
—— glared stupidly at the girl. "Confound it, I knew that I had forgotten something," he said.
Then a just wrath filled his mind. "Why the blazes didn't you put her on the list," he shouted.
Sources:
"Where's Mother?" she said.
—— glared stupidly at the girl. "Confound it, I knew that I had forgotten something," he said.
Then a just wrath filled his mind. "Why the blazes didn't you put her on the list," he shouted.
Sources:
- On the Track. (1922, February 2). Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), p. 2.
- Convivial Diggers, 1872, Samuel Thomas Gill, State Library Victoria
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