Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Horse and cart bogged in what was originally a gold digging outside Meares flooded Criterion Store, Clarke Street, Hill End

Horse and cart bogged in what was originally a gold digging outside Meares flooded Criterion Store, Clarke Street, Hill End

Winter 1872
Glass photonegative

The road in front of William Meare’s Criterion Store subsided in the winter of 1872 to form a bog. The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1872, described the scene.

As regards the mud in Clark-street, I never have heard an exaggeration. No, to Clark-street I will give the palm for mud and the ill manner it is laid out. It possesses three remarkable features, being narrow, crooked, and filthy …

Horse and cart in mud - By Marcelle Freiman

They built a road but ground subsided

as if earth laughed, threw mud back up

into men’s faces.

The men see only mud, more mud

the sinking road: water reflects

their faces resigned to dirt.

Chained work-horses pull

heavy, loaded carts through bog

of mud and standing water.

Buildings along the road are reflections:

not one man steps out – let horses do the work,

white, dappled, dark, haul cart and load

up the clogged verge. Always, outside the frame

someone in shirt-sleeves wields a whip

shouting ‘Pull, dumb beasts, pull!’

 

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