The Burdekin Creative Writers Anthology

In February 2017, eleven people climbed the steep stairs at the Burdekin Library in Ayr. Beginners and experienced writers alike, they dreamed of novels, family histories, memoirs, anthologies and children’s stories. They sought a group of like-minded individuals who would inspire and encourage their creativity. From that meeting, Scratchy Scribblers was formed. Over the next six years, the group changed names and meeting locations multiple times. Members and partnerships came and went, but, throughout it all, the goal of the group stayed the same.
Burdekin Creative Writers is a welcoming space for writers to share their words, find encouragement and advice, enhance their literary skills, and have fun creating new things with only a pen and their imagination.
Because of this group, members have entered short story competitions and been published in anthologies. They have created newsletters, judged writing competitions, and learned to interview notable people in the community. They have written dozens of stories and poems and challenged themselves to write things they never would’ve created on their own.
In 2023, the group published their own anthology, an assortment of stories and poems from the members of Burdekin Creative Writers and Burdekin Night Writers. Burdekin Life is proud to share some of the work from this anthology.

The Mighty Burdekin
by Anne McCubben
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The Burdekin’s a river and it’s known throughout the State
‘The Mighty Burdekin’ they say (in flood, at any rate);
If it is in a placid mood, the fishing’s rather good,
But as in everything I guess, not all goes as it should: -
There’s awesome power and wonder when you hear the river’s roar
In flood time as its torrent with its banks would seem at war.
The water frothy, yellow, and with debris riding fast
Tears madly to the ocean till its level drops at last.

From two farms off you hear it at its height in times of flood
And if it leaves the riverbed, it spreads abroad its mud.
When times are dry the river drops, sometimes below its sand
Or lies in weedy, murky pools one can’t describe as grand,
Yet water from the Burdekin brings life to sugar cane
And other crops depend on it through irrigation drain.
The riverbed has miles of sand – it’s coarse but there’s a lot.
A paradise for children at each favoured picnic spot.

The Burdekin’s a river with its water, sand and mud.
It’s useful yet there’s damage that it causes when in flood.
The lifeblood of our delta as its waters irrigate
The crops the farmers plant each year, the early and the late.
I’ve always known our river for I’ve lived here all my life,
Saw cane trucks pulled by horses and the cane cut by a knife.
I’ve picnicked in our riverbed, gone swimming to get cool,
Seen boats cross flooding waters and caught fish where there’s a pool.

I saw the cattle wagons lying strewn along its bed –
They’d left the bridge as water rose, became a thing of dread
The truck with bricks though, didn’t roll, just dropped off straight and sank.
The engine of that railway train was safe upon the bank
I’ve sat above its waters flowing underneath my house.
Seen croc’s slide in the water when out boating with my spouse,
Camped on its banks near Sellheim and run races on the sand,
Walked over on the rail-bridge once, before the new bridge spanned

And almost tamed our river – well, enabling us to go
From one side to the other with the water high below.
The Burdekin’s my river and I like to tell my friends
That I am from the Burdekin – I like her curves and bends,
The shadetrees on the riverbanks or in the riverbed,
The water clear or full of silt and almost thick instead.
The Burdekin’s my river though she goes through many moods,
Yet has so many uses as her waters grow our foods.

The Burdekin’s a river sometimes full yet often dry
Her tributaries help her flood or also empty lie.
Belyando water’s very slow in flowing on its way,
The Bowen’s faster, Bogie too, can fill it in a day.
Campaspe, Suttor, Clark and Cape, the Fanning and the Star,
The Broken River waters too – they come from near and far.
They join the mighty Burdekin, when they’ve been filled by rain
It is a giant watershed that all these rivers drain.

Between twin towns Home Hill and Ayr, the river makes its way,
On through the delta to the sea to end in Upstart Bay.
The Burdekin’s a river, that’s deceptive when there’s drought
But there’s might and roaring power when a cyclone’s been about

To find out more about the Burdekin Creative Writers, contact George Venables 0407 105 950.
Writers From the Burdekin Creative Writers and Night Writers Groups will read a selection of their pieces from the Anthology at the Ayr branch of the Burdekin Library on Wednesday, April 10 from 9:30am and the Home Hill branch of the Burdekin Library on Wednesday, June 12 from 10:30am.

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