Page 8 - eMuse Vol.9 No.05_Classical

Red Jack

by Athony Hammill

A larger than life wild west Queensland Woman

People who live lives that are weather-beaten from years of toil
out of the ordinary run the risk beneath the harsh western sun
of being hailed by succeeding and showing signs of world weari-
generations as legends, and of ness, but attractive nevertheless.
having the most intimate de- She might well have, by this
tails of their lives scrutinized. stage, exemplified Thoreau’s
All of us leave public records maxim that most people live
that may in the future be used lives of quiet desperation. She
to piece together our lives for said little, and was mounted on
better or for worse, though at an impressive black horse.
the time we never consider that When Michael’s and Han- A sketch of Red Jack
possibility. nah’s lives crossed for that brief
Big Brother and others have moment in time, she had less ground, her horse Mephistoph- And the red-haired witch Red Jack.
tabs on us even in death! Han- than seven years to live. eles being apparently her only
nah Glennon, ‘Red Jack’ of By then she had endured the close friend and confidant. She claimed no name but that,
horse breaking, droving and suicide of an unstable husband, Mary Durack, on reading her they said,
bush racing fame, would no the death of a daughter, the father’s diary, felt inspired to And owned no things but these:
doubt be totally perplexed by birth of another, a son born out write the poem ‘Red Jack’ which Her saddle, swag and riding-kit,
the interest shown in her today, of wedlock, and a second failed was published in The Bulletin in And Mephistopheles.
as she never sought fame. marriage. the 1950’s and as an illustrated And often travellers such as I
She would also be horrified Yet she and her horse made children’s book in 1988. Had seen, and thought it strange,
by the public airing of her dirty an indelible impression on Mi- It evokes a sense of the A woman working on the line
linen (she was a laundress at chael, so much so that he, an uniqueness and mystique of That crossed McKinlay Range.
one stage!) gleaned through of- astute observer and diarist, in- the woman, though clearly ide-
ficial records; such, however, is quired about her and left us a alizing her, given what we know Had seen her in the dreary wake
the price of fame! valuable literary snapshot. about her now, and is in itself Of stock upon the plains,
Michael Durack, father of Michael could only wonder sufficient to create a legend. Her brown hand quick upon the
Mary Durack (1913-1994), about her, but today we know. whip
who wrote her family’s story in This is what Mary Durack wrote She rises clear to memory’s eye And light upon the reins.
‘Kings in Grass Castles’, came of the encounter in ‘Sons in the From mists of long ago With milling cattle in the yard
face to face briefly with Red Saddle’: Though we met but once, in ’98- Amid the dust-fouled air,
Jack in 1898 on his journey from In additional notes on this In the days of Cobb and Co. With rope and knife and brand-
Camooweal to Hughenden in journey made at a later date, ‘Twas driving into Hughenden ing iron
north-west Queensland. M.P. wrote of ‘one person wor- With mail and gold for load A girl with glowing hair.
She had hailed the Cobb & thy of special comment-a wom- That I saw Red Jack, the wanderer,
Co Coach on which he was trav- an- tall, gaunt-looking and with Come riding down the road. “Red Jack’s as good as any man!”
elling between Richmond and bright red hair’, who helped The settlers used to own;
Hughenden to collect her mail. him rummage for her mail and Red Jack and Mephistopheles- And some bold spirits sought
Michael, sitting in the box with the customary salutations They knew them far and wide, her hand,
seat, had earlier volunteered to rode on her way. From Camooweal to Charters But Red Jack rode alone.
take over the reins while the in- He learned that she went Towers She rode alone, and wise men
ebriated driver, who kept falling under the sobriquet of Red The route they used to ride. learned
asleep, crawled into a large box Jack and was known on many They knew them round the To set her virtue high,
for storing parcels and stayed stations in those parts as an Selwyns where To weigh what skill she plied her
there all day! Thus it was he efficient stockwoman. She was The Leichhardt has its source, whip
who dealt with Red Jack. also an expert with her stock- Along the winding cattle ways- With the hardness of her eye.
We can picture the scene that whip which she effectively used A woman and a horse.
met his eyes: a tall, slender wom- on any of her fellow workers I saw Red Jack in ’98,
an wearing rough bush clothes, who ventured to press upon her And strange the tales they told The first time and the last,
long red hair falling below a sweat- their unwelcome attentions. No of them But her face, brown-gaunt, and
stained, battered hat. The face one seemed to know anything Who ranged the dusty track: her hair, red-bright,
was that of a twenty-five year old, about her private life or back- The great black Mephistopheles Still haunt me from the past.

8 eMuse May 2020