Come to Cully – “We’re different”

Six o’clock rolls around, and the sound of caw-caw rings across the town. Sundown. Wings flap, and shadows cross the sight of the sun sinking into the night. Life and relaxation spring up in Cully.

Pop’s bar is open for the night, and peace settles into the soft, dappled light. The sizzling heat abates and drinks await the cheerful mates at Pop’s Bar.

Life on the river teams, it seems, as a flock of white and pink careens towards the silhouette of trees that line the edge of the Warrego.

As those revellers in the Hot Springs lean back and bask in waters soothing and hot, they sip their tea and peer into the night after a restful day in Cully.

But

As the darkness seeps all around, and the nestling birds quieten their deafening sound, small lights illuminate the activities the kids think are great.

The thriving hub of real-world stuff, the kind of stuff that we all think is tough, like hunting pigs and dragging down boar or chasing big game on the hunt while the pigs lurch around as they snuffle and grunt. Is this the real life of Cully?

But wait! No! No! We like it slow. We sneak down to the water’s edge we search for booglies to use as bait. What we are after silently waits for the hook and line we pull on.

“Murray Cod,” you say, “what a way to end the day!”

A fish on the campfire broke out the guitar and set the camp over by the car. With rocks for tables and stumps for chairs, we stare up into the night at the clear sky with stars. The constellations above Cully.

Sometimes, we stay right through the night, partying and snoozing until daylight. When a new day starts and the old one fades, we wander back to our jobs that pay, sit in the cafes, and work in the shops.

But we also engage with more interesting stuff like crops. Crops of Sunflowers, fields of Amaranth, Tumeric and Ginger and all things to do with health and wealth. Yams, and Pumpkins and other stuff. We stick with nature. We stick with health and believe the real world will bring us wealth.

We’ll go back to nature and stay organic. Shun insecticide and nurture things that grow wild in well-treated earth and natural soil. We’ll harvest the food, bring in the crops and enjoy the real world of Cully.

Yes, there’s history here that’s true, that’s true. And we learn about it through and through. We know about the Yumba, the artesian bore, the sheep, and the collisions that were rife. Caring about the core and connections of life. Not ignoring hardships and the inevitable strife helps us think through issues and respect the damage done.

What we do is “our bit” to feel for the land. We go back to what is real and take a healing stand. As we grow our crops and make our stuff, we believe that being real makes us tough. Connections are honest, and our lives are complete in the outback of Australia.

The trucks out here come and go, bringing food and livestock. We get our stuff from Catch and often run out. SO – we have to make do or go without. And yes, it gets hard, and yes, it gets hot, But more than we can bear – no – it is not. You gotta bring it into line and manage what’s what.

Here in the outback, we try to live a blend. It’s not that we are trying to mend the hurts of the past or the injustice still here. No! We try to live now in a space that is real, where people are honest about what they think.

And feel with hands in the dirt and feet in the water; we look up in the sky where the Whistling Kites sing as they soar, “We are artistic, energetic, creative and real”.

 Come to Cully, we’re different.