Page 9 - eMuse Vol.9 No.07_Neat

The Betty Olle Poetry Award

caught Hannah scarce aware. In So ends the story of Hannah
a mustering accident on Chilla- Glennon, a true Queensland
goe Station, she was badly in- and Australian legend, and pos-
jured in a fall from her horse. sibly our first female drover; a WRITTEN COMPETITION
She was transported by train to young woman who succeeded
the hospital at Mareeba over a in a man’s world, challenging
hundred miles away, but died the stereotypes and social con- • For traditional Australian rhyming poetry with
there. There was no inquest. ventions of the time, and who an Australian theme.
was widely respected for her • Open and Junior (12 years and under) sections.
Some researchers seeking to
locate Hannah’s grave searched abilities. She was a person who • Open section - First Prize $500 plus trophy.
under the name Glennon, and courageously stood up for her Runner-up $200 plus certificate.
rights, but who was in the end,
not finding it, declared that it • Junior section - First Prize $100 plus trophy.
had been lost. However, I fig- like all of us, ‘A traveler between Runner-up $50 plus certificate.
ured (not rocket science!) that life and death’ in Wordsworth’s • Entry fee - Open $10 per entry form (2 poems)
she was probably buried under words. • Entry fee - Junior section - free.
her ex-husband’s name of Wat- No photograph of her is
son, and hit it in one . known to exist. May this feisty • Closing date - 31st August 2020.
• Entry forms and conditions of entry available
It’s not surprising that her young woman’s story live on in from the ABPA website - events and results page.
father’s name is incorrectly The Stockman’s Hall of Fame at • Conducted by the Kyabram Bush Verse Group in
Longreach, The Drover’s Camp
listed as Joseph Pollant, and her
mother’s name unknown, as at Camooweal, and above all, in memory of foundation member Betty Ollie
few in those parts would have our hearts .
been aware of her background, By Tony Hammill
as also seems to have occurred W.A. Bush Poets
with her brother Bill.
The incomplete death re- References: & Yarnspinners
cord only told me that she died • Ancestry.com.au: Births, Association
in Queensland in 1904, but the Deaths, Marriages, Elec-
cross- reference beside the re- toral Rolls. SILVER QUILL
cord advised me to check the • Durack, Mary: Sons in the
Cairns Family History Society
link for this name, and up came Saddle. London: Constable WRITTEN COMPETITION
the final proof: died 22 Dec and Co, 1983 .
1904, buried 25 Dec 1904 at • McHugh, Evan: The Drov- Conducted in conjunction with WA State Championships
Costin St Cemetery, Mareeba, ers . Stories behind the Friday 30th October – Sunday 1st November 2020
Prot B 36 . heroes of our stock Tooday. W.A.
I immediately contacted the routes. Camberwell, Victo- Entries Close Friday 2nd Oct 2020
research officer for the CFHS ria: Penguin Viking, 2010. 1 . Open Serious }
who informed me that they did • Queensland State Ar- 2. Open Humorous } The Overall Champion Poet will be
not know that the person bur- chives: Inquiry into the judged across these 2 categories
ied in this plot was Red Jack, death of Thomas Doyle: 3. Novice Only for poets who have never won a Bush Poetry
and that no one under the JUS/N185, 36/1890. Written Competition
name of Hannah Glennon is 4. Junior 5 – 12 years old
buried there . • Troughton, Elwyn: Red
Jack. Researched and Com- 5 . Junior 13 -17 years old
The joys of supposed discov- piled by Elwyn Troughton. 6. Local The best poem by a resident of the Avon Valley
ery can be short-lived . I sub- Copyright 1995 . Entry Fees: Adults $10 per poem; $5 per critique. Juniors Free.
sequently talked by phone to
a Mareeba researcher, Elwyn Next month Tony will treasurer@wabushpoets.asn.au
Troughton, who years ago lo- delve into the unsolved “WA Bush Poets and Yarnspinners Ass’n
cated and erected a small mon- c/o Rodger Kohn,
ument over Hannah’s grave. mystery of the Gatton
Hannah was actually buried on Murders in the late 1800s. 16 Stoddart Way,
Bateman, WA, 6150,
22 December 1904 .
July 2020 eMuse 9