Road Trains on the Barkly

The road trains come and the road trains go

and I sit at my campsite and watch the flow

of road trains on the Barkly.

The early sun is blessedly weak,

The sky is vast and blue and clear,

Strong south winds keep the heat away

Pale slender trunks of the young gums sway

and the spinifex shivers.

And the road trains come and the road trains go

and I sit at my campsite and watch for

road trains rolling on the Barkly.

Out here little distracts the eye,

White line, white line, white line, grid.

Austral Downs, Avon, Soudan, Frewina,

Cattle stations of the Outback are bigger

than three American states put together…

And the road trains come and the road trains go

and I sit at my campsite and wait for the growl

of road trains on the Barkly.

A distant rumble, a far-away roar,

metal on metal, rubber on tar.

A leonine head, the serpentine spine,

fifty-five metres on thirty-two wheels

as high as the driver’s hipline.

By afternoon the heat has soared,

the bush is still, the wind has paused.

The road train stops, the red dust flies

in clouds so thick the bellowing beasts

in its belly are hidden from sight,

but for the clatter of hooves and

the saleyard smells.  And

when the dust subsides

the thing is not to catch their eyes,

peering over the rails

their big round eyes.

And the road trains come and the road trains go

and I sit at my campsite and watch the flow

of road trains on the Barkly.

Evening comes and cool respite.

Pinpricks of light fill the indigo sky

and I sit at my campsite in the darkening quiet.

And on the Barkly -  

road trains lit in red and white,

dragons roaring through the bush night.

*The Barkly Highway runs for 755 kilometres through the Australian outback across the Northern Territory and Queensland. Road trains are massive trucks that haul cargo including cattle across the country.