AustLit

'The sequence begins with poems showing a Wiradjuri Wiringin at the height of his spiritual and psychic powers.

The year 1889, however sees the onset of a second wave white invasion into the Bogan River region. The first invasion was many years earlier by drovers with wandering mobs of cattle. The second invasion is a gold rush, and the town of Bindari is rapidly established. The remaining Wiradjuri people are quickly embroiled in an event which many will not survive, and the lives of those who do are forever changed.

The sequence narrates incidents in the life of the Wiringin, who is known by the community as Billy Pogo. Midway through the sequence this mysterious fire walker and spoon player is made Bindari's clown king and forced to wear a top hat and tails and, hopefully, end the prolonged drought which makes mining extremely difficult.

Several poems attempt to examine the community through Wiringin eyes, until the unexplained death of a miner in Live Bird Lead, and the destruction of the great hotel by fire, sets in motion a series of events where Billy Pogo becomes a scapegoat, and is finally destroyed at the mine's edge.' Source: [The author]