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DARLING RIVER BACK BLOCK SEQUENCE
4. River Pollution
when i left bre at seventeen years old
the water was clean/ you could drink
it straight out of the river/ but about
every five years after heavy rain/ it
would turn a dark muddy colour/ and
kill a few cod and other fish/ and
people went down to the river with
gaffs (big hooks)/ and pulled the sick
ones in to eat them/ then they'd get
sick/ some people will eat anything/
i killed the fish by breaking their
necks with my hands/ the bigger fish
i break their necks over my knee or
over a log/ after waiting in holes for
long periods of time/ some fish get
small red sores on their bodies/ from
pesticides and other poisons washed
into the river, including sewerage/ a
mate of mine rang a fish inspector and
asked him: how did they get the sores?/
he said: leeches chase and bite them/
he wasn't saying too much/ it affects
about two in ten but doesn't kill them/
i came back to bre about sixteen years
later/ the rivers were muddy and dirty
and the water levels twice as high/ they
had put dams in at bre, bourke and other
areas/ and the cod went off the bite/ we
waited for the winter rain to come and
the dams to break/ to put oxygen and
freshwater back into the river/ to wash
all the chemicals and shit downstream |
