I'm amazed at how many Australians have not heard of - or perhaps forgotten - some of the most quintessential Australian movies - or have I become more Australian than the quintessential Australian?
"The Shiralee", based on D'Arcy Niland's book by the same name, is one such movie. It's the story of the itinerant rural worker Macauley - sometimes described as a 'swagman' or 'swaggie' - who suddenly finds himself taking responsibility for his child. Having returned from 'walkabout', he finds his wife entwined in the arms of another, and so he takes his four-year-old daughter, Buster, with him. The child is the 'shiralee', an Aboriginal word meaning 'burden'. In their time together, father and daughter explore new depths of understanding and bonding. The barren landscapes of the outback are central to the swagman's love for his country and provide a backdrop to the richness of his developing relationship with Buster.
Of course, there's nothing like curling up with D'Arcy Niland's book ...
"... an extra shake-down. If he put it on on the ground it didn't walk away. He didn't have to wash it and comb its hair. It never had to have its buttons done up. It was never the burden to slow him down." To continue reading the book online, click here
... but if you're more visually than cerebrally inclined, you'll find both the 1957 movie version with Peter Finch and the 1987 remake with Bryan Brown very faithful screen adaptations of this wonderful book.
To my friend in Cairns: watch it while you are marooned by the raging floodwaters and as you chew on your Tim Tams and baked beans - not all at the same time, I hope! - which was all that you could find after the usual panic-buying had set in. With that kind of diet you won't run out of the other item that's on any panic-buyer's shopping list: toilet paper.
Down here it's going to be a heatwave, and I'm off to another medical appointment in Moruya. It's now the only social life I have these days.
