STRAGGLERS


An oblong hut, walled with blue-grey hardwood slabs, adzed at the ends
and set horizontally between the round sapling studs; high roof of the
eternal galvanized iron. A big rubbish heap lies about a yard to the
right of the door, which opens from the middle of one of the side
walls; it might be the front or the back wall--there is nothing to fix
it. Two rows of rough bunks run round three sides of the interior;
and a fire-place occupies one end--the kitchen end. Sleeping, eating,
gambling and cooking accommodation for thirty men in about eighteen by
forty feet.

The rouseabouts and shearers use the hut in common during shearing.
Down the centre of the place runs a table made of stakes driven into
the ground, with cross-pieces supporting a top of half-round slabs set
with the flat sides up, and affording a few level places for
soup-plates; on each side are crooked, unbarked poles laid in short
forks, to serve as seats. The poles are worn smoothest opposite the
level places on the table. The floor is littered with rubbish--old
wool-bales, newspapers, boots, worn-out shearing pants, rough bedding,
etc., raked out of the bunks in impatient search for missing
articles--signs of a glad and eager departure with cheques when the
shed last cut out.

To the west is a dam, holding back a broad, shallow sheet of grey
water, with dead trees standing in it.