The day following these photographs were taken of one of our resident Curlews , a strange event took place . Lolling in a nearby bedroom in the afternoon , not far from the Curlew swimming pool , this writer was listening to an ABC Radio National special introduced by Fran Kelly about the music played by protest marchers over the years .
It started with the New Orleans influence on union bands in Britain in the l950s , took in the 50 mile nuclear disarmament movement marches to the Aldermaston RAF base with its H-bombs , taking back the streets marches in Australia, the contribution of Sydney's Southern Cross Band on jazz in the UK .
In dealing with "the troubles" in Northern Ireland and the marches by Orangemen celebrating the Battle of the Boyne, prolonged , loud massed flute and drumming could be heard . At this stage , I sat up to turn down the radio and glanced outside ... There was a Curlew which seemed to be listening to the radio , staring at the open bedroom window , the flute music possibly sounding like the wailing of birds .
Then it stretched up to its full height , spread out its wings like the Oh What A Feeling! high jumper in the Toyota advertisement - and danced wildly about the yard, twice. It came to a halt outside the bedroom , its head cocked to the side as if to resume listening to the radio . Oh what another wonderful experience-for me , except cracking knee joints would not permit becoming airborne . Anyway , Up the workers and the ALP !
