This poem was written by Jeff as he was driving to the Amphitheatre Tin Hut for the 2023 Glenhaughton Ringers and Cooks Reunion (30/09/2023).  He sat under a tree and penned his thoughts on arrival. Jeff was still a schoolboy in 1964-65 when he would join his uncle Lester Close (the head stockman) and the ringers in camp at the Tin Hut to enjoy his school holidays.

This is about the differences and similarities that Jeff noticed as he returned to the Tin Hut in 2023. He was last there in 1965.

The nests of meat ants all stirred up, the barking of the station pup,
The photographs will future prove, Glenhaughton Ringers on the move.
The gums, the brigalows and wattles, welcomed us like water bottles,
Big ‘roos and bird life did abound and wilderness was all around.

Water’s held in tanks of plastic, water use is just fantastic,
On the roads the gates are gone now, grids stopping wandering bull and cow.
There’s graders on the road today, the rough bush roads have had their day,
Every gully now is branded, good communications landed.

Where white-faced cattle used to roam, big reds, and greys – with humps – call home,
Still cattle country through and through, and mustered by a modern crew,
White-faced bovines lost the battle, in the bid to turn off cattle,
Better suiting today’s markets, stock management  much more on targets.

Station roads are far more smoother, and you see the big Prime Mover
Much more than the faithful Blitz and Willy’s Jeeps that had no glitz.
The one-wire power line threads through the scrub, steel fences replaced wooden stubs,
4 barbs now run where there were none, and dozers clear the fence line run.

The pads for cattle are still there, and eyes still spot the good ole mare,
And noses smell the powder dust, and ears prick up – the gong in rust.
Here’s to all the Glenhaughton Ringers,
past and present. Let the singers
Keep Glenhaughton history living,
Amphitheatre sandstone ringing,

With tales so tall, but oh so true,
and swagged around the campfire brood
Tell of wild and far-flung cattle,
and the men who won the battle.