Read "On The Wallaby, The Diary of a Queensland Swagman" by Edward S. Sorenson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
From Burradowan I steered for Bundooma, an easy stage of 18 miles, by a fairly level track, winding through giant timber.
Midway I met an elderly one-eyed man, who was as dry and withered looking as a lambskin on a sun-baked plain. His clothes were a mass of patches, with a few holes here and there for ventilation. He had half a yard of tying-wire round one boot to keep it together, and a piece of line wire thrust through the toe of the other, and twitched to keep the boot from gaping. The rim of his hat was suspended from the crown with twine, "to keep it from floppin' about me ears," he explained. Also about 30 small corks, strung on thread, dangled all round under the rim. When a fly lit on his nose he shook his head, and the resultant swinging and bumping of the corks dispersed the pest.