Get out of bed a cyclones coming

No.21.   in my series of short stories.

Get out of bed a cyclones coming

No.688. SOLD: The whole series of 7 was purchased by the same person. The series was Titled THE LIFE OF RILEY.

7 different paintings of various destinations and days out and about around the Pilbara.

Get out of bed a cyclones coming was my first attempt at painting people in my funny way.

A cyclone had not long gone through and as we usually did we would jump in the Landcruiser to take a look at all the local damage. The Sherlock River was racing, right next to it was my old friend having a rest camping out in his humpy, by the look of the litter he had had a great night, hell knows how he didn't float away. The water obviously didn't rise that far or he would have been a goner.

We would often take our Eskies full of food and drinks to have a picnic whilst we were out and about. So much to look at and oh so interesting. The esky lids were used by the kids as surf boards and my goodness did they fly on those rapids.

Old Joe woke up and took us down stream to show what had happened to the livestock. The water had risen so high that as far as the eye could see were hundreds of dead sheep hanging with their wool caught up in the barbed wire fences, and more sheep hanging from the forks of trees with the heat at around 40-45 the stench was on the wind and unbearable.

Huge white gums ripped from the ground laying on the banks waiting for a Bungarra (sand goanna) to make his new home. I have a small chest of drawers that also floated down this river on that day it is now in my bedroom as a bedside table.

Most of the paddocks were flooded with an inch or two of water and hundreds of Bush Turkeys were pigging out on something, I later found out it was scorpions as they get flooded out of their holes and float until the water goes down or they get eaten. Another bit of useless information, seems I'm pretty good at it.