The Boys Who Broke the Drought
John Martin
They said to us it hadn’t rained
For 18 months or more
The skies were blue from dawn to dusk
The stock were really poor.
Down Thargo way no grass was seen
Upon the dusty ground
The sheep ate rocks the cows ate dirt
The roos came into town
Then from the skies came birds on high
A metallic type they were.
Some had wings of plank-like state
While some spun in a blur.
Quilpie didn’t know of famous Secret Men
And Quilpie didn’t know about their secret plan.
The plan to fly from northern rain
To find what we all knew
That somewhere in this great wide land
We’d find some skies of blue.
Cos, Cairns’s skies are seldom clear
And CAVOK’s are few.
We all want better weather
So what else were we to do.
So Quilpie bound were SMB
To an aviators dream
Where viz was always more than 10
Where clear blue sky is queen.
We’d saved for this, we’d waited long.
We’d planned it to a “T”
We made sure that we picked a time
When clearest skies would be
But on the day when SMB
From Charleville departed
The folks out west were heaven blessed.
And the skies they duly parted.
The rain came down in buckets
From Thargo to Noccundra
The cloud got low, the lightning flashed
We shook our heads in wonder
Cos here we were from the wettest place
In all around Australia
As seekers keen of open sky
We ranked as bitter failures
We dodged the bolts of lightning
We weaved around the rain
We wondered at the “Hangar door”
A deluge it was plain.
We’d flown across the country
In search of better stuff
But what we got was what we had
Now that was pretty rough.
But Quilpie kids, their folks and all
Were happy with our lot
For all they knew our erstwhile crew
Had hatched a clever plot.
We’d brought the rain, we made it drop
On pastures far too dry.
The water that they needed
Was brought by boys who fly.
Now, it might be coincidence
Or it might be just luck
It may not be from SMB
But then who gives a ……….toss J
We came along when time was right
So we might take the credit
The history books will tell it all
Let’s not demand they edit.
Cos, what they’ll all remember
Is 18 months of dry
Then how the drought was broken
By 16 blokes who fly.
