Cunnamulla Fella

Stan Coster wrote the words for the song "Cunnamulla Fella" when he was "ringing" in the Cunnamulla district of South-West Queensland in the 1950s, and Slim Dusty later recorded it. In the '50s and '60s, Cunnamulla was enjoying prosperity and growth due to a strong wool industry. On Friday and Saturday nights the young ringers and shearers would race to town for dancing, fighting and loving. Artist Mike Nicholas worked in Cunnamulla as a policeman in the '60s and these men inspired his pen-and-ink drawing of the Cunnamulla Fella. He recalls seeing boys as young as 14 sitting on their swags outside the pubs waiting for the "cocky" (farmer) or the mail truck to pick them up. The statue of the Cunnamulla Fella now standing in the town centre is the work of sculptor Archie St Claire. We had our lunch in sight of it on our way north from Nyngan. We clocked up a creditable 657km through scrubby sheep and cattle country today; we saw also lots of wild emus, a few foraging bands of feral goats and a hurtling procession of gigantic stock trucks and trailers. Tonight we are staying in Charleville at the Waltzing Matilda Motel.