"Rivers can't talk, silly"

By John Godwin

The Burke River at Boulia sparkles in the early morning sunlight and throws out the challenge to take a good picture. Squinting through the viewfinder concentrates the highlights on the surface of the water. The picture challenge is forgotten as every sparkle seems to hold a story of the past.

Local mobs used to fish while kids swam; Burke and Wills filled their water bags here; maybe the Diamantina Drover watered cattle in this spot or Banjo Paterson came up from not-so-far-away Combo Waterhole where he was inspired to write Waltzing Matilda. How many pioneers took a day off from their toils to rest on the banks? Maybe every sparkle is just a reflection of the thousands of corellas that alternate noisily between resting and flying between the tall river gums. And the Min Min light that stalks the region. . .maybe it is hiding amongst those sparkles?

The river draws you into moments of imagining, dreaming, and just wondering about the past. You wish it could talk, but my granddaughter tells me: “rivers can’t talk, silly”. I hope that she will ‘hear’ more of the stories of these rivers as she grows up.

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