YARRAHAPPINI WETLANDS

NNHC member Val Shaw

MY SWAMP STORY an extract from an email to a girlfriend on 16th June 2009 after the 3rd flood this year another bloke mate rang me on Sat morn after the floods and asked "what's happening"? He always starts his conversations this way so I said "they're all over at the mill playing with Ray's fancy new block splitter" "no" he asked "what are YOU doing"? I was a touch curious as he's a blokes bloke, drives a bull dozer and why on earth was he interested in what I was doing !

"oh hanging out the washing WHY"? "well I have to go looking for some missing bullocks of Dad's in the swamp do you want to go"? I instantly replied "no thanks, I'm not going riding in the swamp are you joking ! He said "please yourself, but can I jump my horse off at your place?" "Yes, but why" I asked.

"Coz you've got a ramp and besides the route out the back of your place is the driest track into the Yarrahappini wetlands"

h'mm I thought. In the last few weeks age had caught up on 3 friends of mine so maybe this was a chance of an adventure not to be missed. This bloke had asked me once before, again during the bloody floods to go do something out there to do with cattle - that's right, check the fencing in the Dry Block before the cattle get 'dumped' in there from the river flats.

His truck banged its way down our excuse for a driveway with the saddled filly on board free reining with two black 'n tan kelpies. "So you've changed your mind then" was his greeting. I hadn't wasted much time and yes of course I forgot all about the WASHING. I didn't think twice about which horse to take and quickly saddled Gus my locally 9 bred stock horse - I call him my 'easy horse' coz he doesn't argue and doesn't have his own agenda ! Then this bloke says "so are you going to put a bridle on or what"? I said "no" then he said "are you quite finished" I was doing all my pre-flight checks and replied "no not quite"

We were off, down the track, out the gate and hit water immediately beside our very own billabong at the back gate - hugh I thought, DRY eh. He didn't talk much except for grunting at his dogs which was just fine by me, he knew the country inside out so I just cruised along like a passenger, letting him make all the decisions - felt good and yes it was mostly dry for the first 5 ks anyway.

We rode out of the Dry Block’s tall forest eucalypts and lower bush of banksia into a vast open paddock full of whisky grass up to our thighs, at one point he said "'spose you don't like them either"? I said "WHAT" he said "black snakes", "why" says I, "cos you just rode over one, that's why", "oh" was all I could say. 

He was headed for a bridge he knew up ahead which I couldn’t see and turned to me stating "wait here I'll be back shortly, gotta check the other side of the old bridge" "Oh no you don't, you're not leaving me out here in the middle of this on my own" So off I followed INTO THE SWAMP.... still hadn't spotted anything other than kangaroos bouncing through the water like you see on the movies sometimes.

I was having a wonderful ride and adventure and at one point one of his loyal dogs was swimming on my right hand side with the other swimming on my left - I shook my head to myself and recalled the word DRY with a smile across my face. Next espisode was trying to navigate through a dense stand of young casurina trees - he urged his horse on in front of me and I said "he can't go forward, he's got a tree underneath him !" so the bloke backed up, released the tree which then flung full force at poor Gus who dodged it so that it whacked me fair and square on the right knee cap !

4 hours and 12 kilometres later, slightly wetter than I had wished with leaches hanging off my saddle, I thought WOW what a ride and recalled a friend's father saying once "He who has the most adventures WINS" thank you Norman McPhee. As for the black right knee cap, my man Ray said "Sweetheart think of it as a badge not a bruise"

AMEN