Thank you everyone for your kind and encouraging comments. Yes, this poem is about the years of drought, then torrential rains and flooding in Queensland.  Many farmers suicide, after having lost a farm that has been in their family for generations. I named the cows and dollies (Mulla Mulla) to build a sense of intimacy these people have to their land and their animals. The poem was entered in to the Nature sonnet contest. It is about conversations I have had with people over the years and observations whilst I was working or taking the 10 hour drive to the coast (no stops).  During hikes or driving, all I would see was rocks, spinifex grass and hundreds of flies. A friend who works in exploration pointed out the beautiful hills and said it all once was ocean.  He told me about men chasing gold and how the Chinese pushed wheelbarrows with all there belongings because thats how they got around. He pointed out shell dumps, where the Indigenous people would gather and eat.   I went to Riversleigh fossil once and commented where is the museum, only to be told "you are standing in it". Look there handprints, crocodile marks in the rock, walk further and you see shall dumps. Read a sign that tells you an area was  rainforest, peat swamps and tree climbing crocodiles.  Camels (from Afgan cooks) roam the outback, with a pure pedigree. The desert came alive. Footprints, stories, history and change. Thank you.

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