Story about a man who goes prospecting and stumbles on instant wealth
Brian The Bushman
by Paul McCann
.
Brian lived an interesting way of life after escaping from the city to have a go at clearing some land that the Australian government offered cheap in their effort to open up farming in the bush .
People like Brian stepped forward and pushed his way onto a large property with plenty of work to be done .
After he clearing the land he built a little home on a dusty property where the work was hard and thankless .
He decided to buy some farming equipment to grow wheat for export . Now and then he would get a visit from some pioneer .
People would sometimes go walkabout around the country looking for gold or silver .
Brian was used to strangers dropping by . He never minded because usually there were stories to be told about people and places on other bush farms . Now and then in return for Brian’s kindness one of the bush pioneers would leave a small gift.
One of those gifts was a map to the site of a gold mine .
Brian lived alone and kept in touch with life on the radio .
What he loved most about the bush was there was no one to dictate to him about he had to do and how to achieve that .
Brian’s tractor became a white elephant but he tried to keep positive about the struggle with drought as he watched his crops surrender to the dust and his sheep die from hunger . It was cheaper to buy a bullet than a bale of lucerne . So one he had enough and opened up the gate to his property and let the sheep go . He soon followed with a pack on his back and his best companion , an old fiddle that he loved .
On the map there was a area marked that had a gold mine with no one mining there anymore due to an accident . Brian was offered a share in any gold there by the drifter who was in need of help to do some digging . It was a few days walk to the site but Brian though it might be a good idea to give it a go .
Living in the bush often taught you to be resilient and inventive.
Brian’s parents were native aboriginal and taught him many of the secrets of surviving in the bush . He had a wealth of knowledge about how to find water and what kind of food the bush offered .
As he made his way along through the bush he saw an aboriginal man sitting on a hill with a didgeridoo and went to join him , They both sat there watching a few kangaroos in the distance . Brian started singing a little song he knew about a possum and the aboriginal man played along on his didgeridoo .
When the song was over they both had a laugh and the aboriginal man asked if he could have a look at the fiddle because he had never seen anything like that before . Brian haned it to him and said ,
“It’s a fiddle “
The aboriginal man replied ,
“Fiddle , diddle daddle “
Brian burst out laughing .
Brian decided he would camp there for the night and collected some twigs and set up a fire . The aboriginal man stayed with him and they shared a few stories about the River Murray and how the people from Mount Kosciusko used to swim in the Murrumbidgee stream long before white settlers came .
The two were enjoying gazing at the landscape before them and they shared a mug of billy tea around the campfire glow , As night fell the shooting stars raced across the sky and Brian took his fiddle once and began to play.
The aboriginal man began to smile and sang a silly song ,
“A fiddle diddle daddle in the middle of the bush , it’s just a little fiddle faddle’
They both slept under the stars around the campfire in land where there fore fathers had done the same . They belonged there and they smiled because they knew . It’s a feeling only native people get and it makes everything worthwhile . Brian started to yodel .
“With a little yodel dodle and an odle dodle do”
Morning came and they went their separate ways . He caught side of a few wild brumbies and whistled in their direction , A few of them raced over and Brian ran his eye over one of them before mounting the horse . It reared and bucked and raced off like a bullet shot from a gun with Brian sitting on its bare back . The best horsemen are aboriginal people , Quite often when city folk want a horse broke in they would pass it over to an aboriginal who would return it weeks later with a new attitude and now much easier to ride .
The journey on horseback made it a lot quicker for Brian to get to the place where the gold mine was . He gave the horse some water and bread from his tucker bag before going to have a look around .
He took out his fiddle and started to play and old Bush man’s song .
The drifter who gave the map to Brian emerged from the entrance to the gold mine . He was very happy to see Brian and rushed over to greet him saying .
“I never expected to see you again”
Brian replied
“Well I’ll tell you how it is . I’ve nothing better to do so I thought to myself Brian why not try my luck at prospecting.”
“Your names Brian am I right ?”
The drifter asked and Brian replied .
“That’s correct “
“You’re very welcome here Brian , you now I never told you my name did I ? Well people know me as Starlight .”
He reached out his hand and Brian shook it and said
:”Please to see you again Starlight “
Starlight then smiled and said
“ Where did you ever learn to play the fiddle like that ?“
Brian answered ,
“Well Starlight ,it belonged to my Father . He said it was given to him by an Irish convict he had met in the Silver mines in Victoria and he taught me how to play it .“
Starlight responded .
“I hope you’ll stay here for a while Brian . I have enough provisions in the shack there for maybe six months or more . I’ve been working this site for a while and I know there’s gold here . Will you work along with me Brian and whatever we find we will share .”
“You’ve got yourself a deal Starlight “
Every day both of them dug deeper and uncovered some opals and as yet there was no sign of any gold . Fortune favours the brave and they never gave up digging and searching . The months passed with no luck and they both were almost drained of their strength . They had worked so hard with no reward but almost at the point of collapse they stumbled upon a gold nugget about the size of Brian’s fiddle .
Starlight reckoned it must have been hidden by the previous owner of the site who had lost his life when the mine he was working in collapsed . Originally the mine was said to have been an opal mine but Starlight had been told a story about a gold nugget in this area but to as far as he knew no one ever look in this old opal mine . That’s what made him suspect that maybe the nugget was hidden in this old opal mine .
They were to walk away from the bush as rich men with a story no one would hardly believe ,
Rovella is a beautiful woman with a cold heart whom blames herself for an unfortunate old family secret that is literally ruining her life. This secret impedes a gorgeous woman from having happiness in her childhood, and throughout her life. Dark sec
A poignant story about letting go of a narcissist in your life. Have you ever been attacked FULL force by a narcissist? It's the closest thing to being stabbed over and over in the back.
Suspenseful and close to home, Rain of Deception 2 will leave you in Tears. Much like Part 1, this will shocking sequel will keep you on the edge of your fingertips.
