THE LONG, STICKY WALK

The Long, Sticky Walk, illustrated by. Dee Huxley, 'Cygnet Young Fiction' (2003, University of Western Australia Press) Notable Book, Children's Book Council of Australia. Also in the Victorian Premier's Reading Challenge. ISBN 1 876268 81 6. Publisher (UWAP)

Emily lives with her family - Mama, Papa, little brother James and Baby Ann - on a small farm near Narrabri in northern New South Wales. In 1886, after a terrible flood, and with Papa working as a teamster in Queensland, the children and Mama are stranded, with hardly anything left to eat.

After the floodwaters have subsided, they pack up a swag and the remaining scraps of food and set off to walk to Narrabri - through swarms of sandflies, past animals drowned in the flood - on and on through the sticky, black mud.

1. Historical background
2. Food, glorious food!
3. Location and distance
4. The oral tradition

1. Historical background

Understanding some historical facts will help children appreciate the story.

• The father is a teamster: he has a team of horses (usually six or eight) and a wagon. This enables him to carry goods from one place to another: bags of flour and sugar from a railway station to a grocery shop, hay from a paddock to a shed, wool bales from a shearing shed to a railway station...
• In the 19th century, shearing started in Queensland in June where the weather was warmest. Then the shearers moved south into New South Wales and finally to Victoria. That's why the father went north to carry wool bales.
• The parents were fairly new immigrants from England, the father being experienced in working with horses. They had a little money, but not enough to buy a large farm. If they had been poor, they couldn't have afforded a team of horses and a wagon. By taking work as a teamster from time to time, the father was able to make a living and keep his family.

2. Food, glorious food!

Children may explore the topic: 'Food then, and food today'. Country people who lived far from towns bought large quantities of food: huge bags of flour and sugar, casks of salted meat, packs of dried plums (prunes) and currants. If the flour or fruit was spoilt by insects or grubs, they couldn't afford to throw it away, so they sieved and picked laboriously until they got rid of the pests.

The vegetable garden was important - for both fresh and preserved (salted) food. Usually a sheep was killed once a week for fresh meat - perhaps shared by several families. Some of it was smoked or preserved in salt, for there was no way of keeping it fresh.

Discussion

• Discuss, compare and contrast food then and food now, and guide the children to discover how the development and growth of motorized transport and refrigeration have changed our lives.
• Children may interview grandparents to see how different their lives are from those of two generations ago. For example, an ice-cream, a chocolate bar or a fizzy drink was a once-a-week treat (not an item to be expected daily). Eating between meals was confined to a snack after school. Children can share their findings with the class.

3. Location and distance

Display a map of New South Wales and locate the northern town of Narrabri, the Nandewar Range, the Queensland border and Sydney. If your school is in New South Wales, find it. Then, on a map of Australia find New South Wales and the other locations mentioned above.

Activity: maps and maths

• Children can estimate the distances in kilometres from Narrabri to Sydney and to the Queensland border, before discovering the actual distances. How long would it take, travelling 100 kph, to travel between the various locations?
• How long would it take for Emily's father, driving the wagon, to reach the Queensland border? Work it out on the basis that horses can jog at about five kph. Don't forget that they will need a drink and a rest in the middle of the day.
• Using a diagram, children may show how the 11 mile walk to Narrabri became 66 miles of hard slog for Emily's mother. (Conversion: five miles = eight kilometres)

4. The oral tradition

In the 19th century, most children had very few toys and books. The oral tradition of storytelling was very important, with parents and grandparents passing on stories, folk tales, legends, sayings, customs, proverbs, popular superstitions and nursery rhymes. On Sundays they told stories from both the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible: 'Moses in the Bullrushes', 'Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours', 'David slays Goliath', 'The Miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes', Jesus Walking on the Water'...

Because the theme of The Long, Sticky Walk is survival of a flood, there is a reference to the Biblical story of Noah's Ark, told by the Papa.

Enrichment - story link

As today's children may not be familiar with Biblical stories, tell or read the story of Noah's ark so that they can appreciate Emily's point of view in the novel. You may find a picture-story edition in your library.

• The Holy Bible, Genesis 6-9
• Tim and Jenny Wood, Noah's Ark, illus. Fran Thatcher, 1998, Lothian, Port Melbourne.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Edel Wignell ©
The following article was first published in 'Reading Time' Magazine (Children's Book Council of Australia) May 2003.

'The International Year of Fresh Water is a propitious time for the launch of The Long, Sticky Walk,' said Edel Wignell on the book's release in March, 2003. 'Breakthrough rains in many parts of Australia following years of drought symbolize hope and renewal.'

The story was inspired by a legend that I read when I was compiling A Bluey of Swaggies in the early 1980s. Folklorist Bill Beatty wrote that, in the 1880s, a teamster left his family on his selection near Narrabri in northern New South Wales for a two-months' season of wool-carrying in Queensland. They had enough provisions, but floods prevented his return.

With food stock low, the mother decided to walk with her children - a three-month-old baby, a three-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl - eleven miles to Narrabri. But not far from home, the children were exhausted - struggling through the heavy, black soil - so she carried them a short distance, in turn, one by one.

They were picked up near Narrabri three or four days later, the mother being unconscious. She had walked sixty-six miles, carrying children thirty-three miles of the way. All recovered. (A Treasury of Australian Folk Tales and Traditions (1960, Ure Smith).

The legend stayed with me and I researched, on and off, for a primary source. Rainfall figures indicated that the two wettest years were 1886 and 1888, so I spent many days searching those winters in 'The Narrabri Herald', believing I would find the story. Descriptions of 'boggings', sheep swept into tree tops along a creek, people walking out of their boots... were useful later.

The historical societies of northern NSW were not able to assist, so, in 1994 I decided to give the legend life and a reunion with the father by writing it myself. I chose 1886 and created the story from the point of view of Emily, aged five.

Many people read the story before it was published and I received a great deal of advice. Some questioned aspects of the historical background, especially the teamster father's absence in Queensland. Why didn't he stay home and carry wool in his own district?

In the 19th and early 20th century, shearing started in Queensland in June where the weather was warmest. Then shearers moved south into New South Wales and finally to Victoria. I was brought up on a sheep farm in northern Victoria and my father told me these facts which were confirmed when I researched A Bluey of Swaggies, many of the swagmen being shearers.

I imagined that the parents were English immigrants, the father being experienced in working with horses. They had a little money, but not enough to buy a large farm. If they had been poor, they couldn't have afforded a team of horses and a wagon. By taking work as a teamster from time to time, the father was able to make a living and keep his family.

Several publishers' readers advised me to include segments with the mother explaining the situation to the children and discussing it with them. This is a very modern approach. When I was a girl in the 1940s, there were two worlds, set apart: the world of adults and that of children. In the 19th century and up to about 1960, parents did not discuss their lives, relationships and plans with children. Now children see adult news and stories on television and parents answer questions and explain. So the childhood years of innocence have shrunk.

The long wait for publication is 'water under the bridge'. With lyrical and romantic illustrations by Dee Huxley, the story is afloat - at last!