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Life in the Australian Army...

>

> Text of a letter from a kid from Eromanga to Mum and Dad. (For

> Those of you not in the know, Eromanga is a small town, west of

> Quilpie in the far south west of Queensland)

>

>

>

>

> Dear Mum & Dad,

>

> I am well. Hope youse are too. Tell me big brothers Doug and Phil

> that the Army is better than workin' on the farm - tell them to get

> in bloody quick

> smart before the jobs are all gone! I wuz a bit slow in settling

> down at first, because ya don't hafta get outta bed until 6am. But

> I like sleeping in now, cuz all yagotta do before brekky is make ya

> bed and shine ya boots and clean ya uniform. No bloody cows to

> milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack - nothin'!! Ya haz gotta

> shower though, but its not so bad, coz there's lotsa hot water and

> even a light to see what ya doing!

>

> At brekky ya get cereal, fruit and eggs but there's no kangaroo

> steaks or possum stew like wot Mum makes. Youdon't get fed again

> until noon and by

> that time all the city boys are buggered because we've been on a

> 'route march' - geez its only just like walking to the windmill in

> the back paddock!!

>

> This one will kill me brothers Doug and Phil with laughter. I keep

> getting medals for shootin' - dunno why. The bullseye is as big as

> a bloody possum's bum and it don't move and it's not firing back at

> ya like the Johnsons did when our big scrubber bull got into their

> prize cows before the Ekka last year! All ya gotta do is make

> yourself comfortable and hit the target - it's a piece of pi$$!!

> You don't even load your own cartridges they comes in little boxes

> and ya don't have to steady yourself against the rollbar of the roo

> shooting truck when you reload!

>

> Sometimes ya gotta wrestle with the city boys and I gotta be real

> careful coz they break easy - it's not like fighting with Doug and

> Phil and Jack and Boori and Steve and Muzza all at once like we do

> at home after the muster.

> Turns out I'm not a bad boxer either and it looks like I'm the best

> the platoon's got, and I've only been beaten by this one bloke from

> the Engineers - he's 6 foot 5 and 15 stone and three pick handles

> across the shoulders and as ya know I'm only 5 foot 7 and eight

> stone wringin' wet,but I foughthim till the other blokes carried me

> off to the boozer.

>

> I can't complain about the Army - tell the boys to get in quick

> before word gets around how bloody good it is.

>

> Your loving daughter,

>

> Sheila

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