THE ANIMAL PIONEERS
| We sing the praise of our pioneers We look on them all with pride But seldom we praise the animals That laboured by their side The teamster's bullocks that pulled the load Of mighty fallen trees Sometimes in the rainy season They were bogged in mud to their knees The stock-whip applied so fiercely That the ranges echoed back With the horrible crack of that angry goad leaving welts upon their back The teamster was praised unending When he delivered supplies of grain But seldom a word was spoken Of the bullocks that felt the pain With angry whips of torture Made from leather of their kin Some were flogged with such ferocity It sometimes tore the skin As the teamsters pushed them onward They gave forth with anguished cries As their strength was pushed to its limit There was pain in their weary eyes The bullocks deserve the credit For a job only they could do Many words are written in teamster's praise For the bullocks, there's only a few Not all teamsters were heartless Back in those early days There were those who felt for the bullocks And to these I offer my praise But in this untamed country Bullock teams toiled everywhere Yet hardly a word is spoken Of their misery and despair The horse gave so much to the settlers His exploits were many and grand Without his strength and his courage We could never have 'settled' this land He pulled the stumps and ploughed the fields And hauled the laden dray The settler's 'tractor' and transport He served them in every way I praised his worth in the poem 'The Horse' So I'll not repeat it all here But the settlers found use for his talents Every day, every week, every year And we can't ignore the drover's dog And the many jobs he could do The drover's faithful companion He was 'sheep dog' and 'cattle dog', too And I salute the drover My respect for him never ends For he gave due praise to his horse and dog And he treated them both as friends His dog kept the flock or herd in check As they moved in the great 'outback' And quickly recovered the wayward That strayed from their chosen track At the end of the day he rested But kept vigil through the night To keep cattle or sheep bunched safely With never a fence in sight And many a story the drover told And he told it without remorse Of the debt he owed to his partners His devoted dog and horse In the early days of settlement Without trucks or tractors then The heavy supplies from the laden ships Could not have been carried by men It was only the strength of the powerful two That kept our history on course The supplies were hauled to the great inland By the toil of the bullock and horse I have great respect for the pioneers I find little to condemn And I'm proud of my Aussie heritage For I'm descended from them And I'm not only proud of the pioneer But I'm also proud of his wife She toiled by his side in the blazing sun She lived a torrid life But, we usually refer only to humans When we speak of the pioneers And we honour the courage that carried them Through the pain of the early years But if animals are given no credit When history's page we scan Then there is something incredibly selfish In the ego that is man I concede that this country was settled By the courage and wisdom of man But he required the assistance of animals To pursue his distant plan Man would have been as handicapped Without animals to command As a skilled and polished conductor Without an orchestra or a band I confess I'm an animal lover And I sometimes go too far But animals played an important part To get us to where we are To state my appreciation And despite the sceptics sneers I dedicate this poem to the animal pioneers K.D. Abbott © 2007K.D. Abbott © 2007 |
| NOTE: The picture used to illustrate this poem has only been chosen to show the type of loads that the bullocks hauled. I am not insinuating that the men in this photograph were heartless. These could have been men who appreciated the work their animals were capable of and treated them with kindness and respect. |
| NOTE: You are invited to make copies of any poem on this site for your personal and private use providing the details of copyright are included. The poems are not to be used for commercial purposes or displayed on any website. |
All poems and short stories on this site are protected and
Copyrighted to K. D Abbott 2007. © All rights reserved.
