Saturday, July 22, 2017

There's no towbar on a hearse... You can't take it with you

 There's no towbar on a hearse; You can't take it with you.
Those were the wise words of Mathew Reilly, owner of Reilly's Irish pub in Burra, South Australia state.
"My great-granddad was from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland." So said Mathew. He seemed like an interesting character and even called himself 'One of the last pioneers' I had  two further questions..
"What do you think of Australia, your country?" I asked him.
" I love it because it's all I know"
Fair enough.. I thought, I couldn't expect more. Then,  I was curious to know more..
"How would you change your country?" That was a loaded question, for I knew he was not a fan of politicians, but still Mathews answer was interesting.
"There is nothing more dangerous to society than an educated nitwit , that's right... I can teach a parrot to talk, but at the end of the day it's still a parrot... I'm 73, a hardworking man, still out drilling minerals, and believe me that's hard work.
I wish the younger generation would want to learn how to work harder. And why should I pay taxes to keep fools going?
I sent my boy Jimmy to a Protestant school to kill the hate; hate towards the Brits. Because I did not want him to grow up with the same hate that I did."
I asked him what did he mean and was told that he spent too many days sitting around a dinner table with his folks who talked about their hatred for the Brits..
"That hate, for Cromwell, and all that followed was in our blood.
"My Irish Catholic family had acreage of 30,000."
I wondered how it was that during famine times in Ireland why that land would have been taken from them. I had many more questions to ask, including..  If he was sure that his family weren't  Protestant, perhaps through marriage that their thread changed?"

Next day, I had planned to walk on from Burra towards Morgan. However, when Mathew offered me and another man called Andrew a chance to visit his farm. It was an offer I jumped at. So, I took another rest day, I am getting so lazy 😅
First he treated us to breakfast in the St. Just Cafe. Burra is a small historic copper mining town for it once boasted Australia's largest mine and produced 5% of the worlds copper. Now with a population of 1,000, it's a shadow of its former glory.
After breakfast we experienced just a sliver of the tough life of a rancher. Armed with a shotgun Mathew drove us out his 10,000 acre farm in his pickup truck.
That morning a cow had given birth to a calf. Unfortunately, the calf didn't make it and the cow was suffering badly. The technique farmers use to save cows from dying is to encourage it away from lying down on the ground. For the cold surface would paralyze the animal. Straps dangling from the raised fork lifts extended forks and wrapped around the stressed cows body. Mathew had been prepared to give the cow a humane end with a bullet but was impressed as it seemed to be a fighter. Instead, he would check on it during the day before deciding if he needed to put it out of its misery.
As we looked on at the poor animal we were told that:
"Normally when they put their head to ground they are throwing
In the towel.. That would be the end for its hind legs would soon paralyses."
Other sad-faced cows looked on in sympathy and then Mathew went on to say.
" Sheep would just keep on grazing totally unaware of any distress. Whereas, cows realize what's happening. That horned cow over there also made it through after a recent miscarriage. And just to prove that cows do have emotions.. It sat in a depressed state and barely moved for two weeks."
On the way to the farmhouse I asked a bit about the economics and was told that the current market rate for a cow is in the region of 1,500 Australian dollars, about a thousand Euro; or 2,000 dollars with the calf. Stressed cows aren't sold on for meat, as apparently its too tough to eat, more suited for mince meat. Mathew said that he would give it away to anyone that wanted it for free, but most people would be to lazy.
The market value of sheep is only 200 dollars.

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