COCKTAILS , CRICKET , MAYFLOWERS AND TROPICAL LITERATURE

Being  a  bower bird and stickybeak , a recent visit to the splendid Special Collections section of the Eddie  Koiki  Mabo  Library at  the James Cook University  Townsville campus  resulted in  perusal of  freshly  catalogued local literary magazines  from the early 1970s.  

 

 

The above 1980 self managed  publication was  for  writers and artists in the north with assistance from the Townsville  Cultural Association. It  included  a  poem , being  written or  superficial observations  of an Australian painting ,“The Cricketers” by Russell Drysdale, by Maureen Lennox. ( Special Collections  has  a  large Russell Drysdale early  Australiana  book  collection   with  interesting  bookplates  and   prominent   previous  owners .  ) 
 

Over the years these  publications have fostered   local talent ,  run prose, short stories,  poems , recollections  of   earlier  days ,  artwork ,  photographs. The first edition of  In Print ,September 1972,  journal of the Townsville Writers' Group ,  is included in the collection. It  was edited  by  Erika  Borsboom .  

Glancing  through a  volume  an  entry of note  mentioned  Miss Gerdie  Polemyer, of Belgian Gardens , having owned  the first Mayflower  car  in Townsville , which  she drove to school . It just so  happens that this writer's  first car was  a  Mayflower  , formerly  owned by the wife of the  Rum Jungle uranium mine  manager , bought  in  Darwin in  the  late l950s. I still   have its manual  and the mascot salvaged  from  the bonnet  of  a burnt out  Mayflower , presumably my ex-vehicle,  in  the Territory  bush  many  years  later.