From Lead Dust to Red Dust
February 10, 2012Book review,
By ALAN ERSKINE
APART from hard work, and spending time with his family, there was nothing Marty Nesbit loved better than swapping morning and afternoon ‘smoko’ stories with family, fellow workers and visitors on his parents’ isolated NSW cattle station.
Jenny and Jim with their kids,
Covering life in general, work, rest, play, travel and hundreds of other topics, the stories over the years brought mixed emotions, reflecting sad times, happy times, extremes of weather – and provided a welcome, often informative and entertaining break from station work.
When Marty’s mother, Jenny, decided to write a book, Marty asked her if she would write it as short stories…. based around their ‘smoko’ yarns. The book was started 20 years ago but it was a case of unfinished business…somehow there was always something else on the busy station that needed Jenny’s attention.
Then came that fateful day in 2003 when Marty, then 34, was critically injured when a reversing truck pinned him against the stock loading race. Suffering severe internal injuries, Marty died before the Royal Flying Doctor Service team arrived.
Years after Marty’s death, Jenny sat down once again at her computer – purposeful about completing what she had started so long ago. The finished book of smoko stories, “Lead Dust to Red Dust” was released in November, 2011.
The title reflects the change of life that Jenny experienced after growing up in the mining town of Broken Hill, swapping the lead dust of the Silver City for the familiar choking red dust of the Australian outback.
Jenny has included several stories of those growing up years among the 100 or so yarns in the 323-page paperback…and she has fulfilled Marty’s request…they’re short, sharp, informative and interesting – and give a great insight into life on the land in the Great Australian Outback.
In her teen years, growing up in Broken Hill, the possibility of life on a sheep and cattle station hadn’t even entered Jenny’s mind…until, aged 17, she saw her brother-in-law walking across the road towards her, deep in conversation with a sun-tanned handsome young stranger.
Jenny has total recall of that day, despite it being almost 50 years ago. Well, to be more precise, she doesn’t remember what her brother-in-law was wearing, but his mate, Jim Nesbit, cut a dashing figure, impeccably dressed, complete with hat, deeply tanned and with his beaming smile and infectious laughter…Jenny was smitten.
That day marked the beginning of a life-long romance…married 15 months later…and as Jenny relates in her book, that was when the adventures began!
The then 18-year-old bride went from the safety, security and all mod cons of a progressive city to the isolation of her new home, Dalmuir Station, almost mid-way between Broken Hill and Tibooburra, to a ‘long drop’ toilet, a 4am start to daily life, seemingly endless heat and thick, choking dust storms, mustering and sometimes wrestling with hot, wet, smelly animals, snakes and a myriad of other bush creatures, the most basic of cooking facilities and other creature comforts…a life Jenny has learned to love!
It’s impossible to do justice to her documented journey in these pages. These are not the stories of an academic or professional author…they are the tales that many readers, especially those with any knowledge of the bush, will pick up on.
Jenny takes readers back to her childhood, telling a story that many of us can relate to…including having a crack at smoking for the first time. Jenny was eight when she and her younger brother Ronnie lit up for the first time.
To Jenny the cigarette tasted dreadful, but five-year-old Ronnie was puffing away like a professional. He was also a very honest young lad, as Jenny found out later when their Mum called them into the house, and asked accusingly what they’d been doing.
As Jenny stuttered away, praying for divine guidance, young Ron said proudly; “We’ve been smoking. I can smoke a cigarette, AND do the drawback!”
There are other stories about those growing up years, but it’s the stories of outback life that will appeal to most readers. The stories revolve around the trials and tribulations of station life, told warts and all, and involving Jim, the neighbours, their friends, four beautiful children, bush education, the horror years of a prolonged drought, low sheep and wool prices, station mishaps, fires, flooding rains – and the amazing transformation that comes with a decent outback soaking.
Jenny remembers her first swim in one of the station dams. She had been used to the crystal clear waters of Broken Hill’s Olympic-size pool, with its pristine surrounds of grass, so it was something of a shock to wade through ankle-deep mud into what looked like a big dirty water hole. But Jenny had the time of her life, and didn’t need to be asked twice to go for a swim after that.
She writes about her fierce independence…and she certainly wasn’t going to respond to things like the time Jim was outside in the shed, constantly beeping the horn of the family car to get attention…as if she was going to be summoned in such a way! Of course she regretted it when she finally did respond…to see Jim struggling to push the car, by this time a blazing inferno, out into the yard so the sheds wouldn’t go up in flames as well.
And ‘bushies’ will relate to the stories about the frequent dust storms…thick, blinding, choking dust that seeped into every nook and cranny…when Jenny went to check on her newborn, lifting him from his cot, she wasn’t surprised to see the perfect outline of dust that had surrounded the sleeping bub.
Jenny writes about the challenges of mustering, mulesing, yarding sheep…and killing her first snake. She relates the different world of the party telephone, the bush telegraph, using generators for the only power, meat shortages, welding lessons, tennis in the outback, the welcome mail deliveries, friends made, and family lost…all told with honesty, sincerity, and often with raw bush humour.
And all parents who have raised young boys will love the tale about the Nesbit kids putting on their own Houdini act after watching a video of the great man. It was mid-morning, and Jim junior had come in from the yard for smoko. “Where’s Marty?,” Jenny asked. “I tied him up at the post near the shed,” Jim replied innocently. “He said he’ll be here in a minute.”
Smoko came and went, and Jenny thought she would investigate…and there was Marty, bound head to toe with rope, still struggling and with no hope of ever freeing himself, as young Jim had been well schooled by his Dad in knot tying. Jenny reminisces that even though young Marty had been there for around half an hour, he’d had to wait a little longer…just long enough for her to go back into the house to grab her camera for yet another ‘Kodak moment’ on the station.
Some of those moments are faithfully recorded among the pages of this entertaining book…the kids during their correspondence school lessons, pictures of the family growing up, visits to the ‘Big Smoke’ for various events, mustering and dust storms.
Lead Dust to Red Dust is available by contacting Jenny’s email – nesbitpastoral@bigpond.com or write direct to Jenny at Dalmuir Station, Via Broken Hill, NSW, 2880.
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← Shop around for insurance – Crisp Mildura Lifesaving Club seeks more volunteers →2 Responses to From Lead Dust to Red Dust
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I will get this book. Dallas was my first girlfriend when I was 10 years old; she was a boarder at the convent in Broken Hill and I went to the Marist Brothers. I still see her now and then.
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A great review for a great book, Alan!