Tails from the Bush
Barking Buddies Note: Dingos are Australian Wild Dogs. In earlier times farmers blamed them for taking a lot of their stock, hence the government bounty. Research done by the CSIRO and others found domestic stock made up only a tiny fraction of the wild dogs menu. Others say this is not the case, Barking Buddies will dig up some more info about this subject. Anyone care to comment? Post your comments on the Message Board or send Email.
One year when times were pretty tough and you took on any job to earn an
extra "shillin", the Dingoes were giving the cockeys out Richmond way
(Qld.AU mid west) a hard time. To try to minimize the problem the local
council offered a bounty of a shilling (approx 10 cents for those of you
born too late to appreciate "good" money) for each pair of Dingo ears. A
couple of ringers on a place that was overstocked with the feral
canines, decided that it was a good way to earn some extra drinking
money and they sat down one afternoon to work out a plan of attack.
Now they realised that there wasn't a lot of money to be earned if they
only shot the dogs as they moved around during the day. If they went
chasing them at night, a light bright eniugh to see them would frighten
the dogs away. Anyway, they reckoned with no sleep they wouldn't be any
good to the boss the next day and they couldn't afford to lose their
jobs, so they had to work out a way to get the dogs to come to them, so
that one could keep watch while the rest slept until the dogs turned up.
They worked out that if they took an old broiler from the chook-house
and strung it up in a tree, the flapping and squaking would be sure to
attract the dogs. Then they could string up a carbide lamp over the hen,
to give just enough light to reflect the dogs eyes, so they had
something to aim at. The first night the plan worked beautifully. By
morning they had ten bob (approx $1)to put in the kitty. In those days
that was almost the best part of a weeks wage. The second and third
nights were about the same. The boys were working out how best to spend
all this money they were going to make. They could see a big binge
coming up at the next rodeo.
Then disaster struck. On the fourth night - nothing - not a solitary
hair. The dogs were there in the same numbers but neither of the boys
shots were having any effect. They never hit a dog all night. Something
was amiss. One of them could have an off night and miss a couple of
shots, but to have the two of them miss everytime was just not on. That
afternoon they collected all the empty beef tins and checked out each
rifle. Good as gold. They just couldn't and didn't miss a shot.
That night was just like the other nights. Dogs everywhere. Plenty of
eyes in the light. Plenty of shots fired, but absolutely no dogs at the
end of it. The next night, before the sun went down, one of the boys
climbed up the tree, and as soon as he heard the dogs he turned up the
lamp so he could see what was causing them to miss.
Now these two blokes were seasoned bushies and they knew that the Dingo
was plenty smart, but they had a hard time accepting what they saw in
the light of that old carbide lamp....There were the dogs, in pairs,
walking along side by side, about six inches apart. The dog on the right
had its right eye closed and the dog on the left had its left eye
closed... The bullets were passing straight between them! True! Would I
lie to you?
( An extract from the Australian Cattle Dog Social Club of
North Queensland's May-June 1998 Newsletter.)
Submitted by John Chandler
Secretary, Australian Cattle Dog Social Club of North Queensland.
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