Published in Overland Issue 228 Spring 2017 · Uncategorized Everything that happens in the film clip for Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’ Liam Ferney A mid-twenties yarn, classic as A Country Practice kicks off with a caveman’s sodapop bottle steel kettle drum. Kombi cracks in the Cronulla dunes. TANERLORN RULES. The Age of Aquarius ends but we’re in the Eternal City now. Four fellas in the back. FAAAAARK! The medium serves muesli by an oasis & the Sipowicz spiv in sunnies says its SOLD SOLD to the guy with the toy koala playing flute in the tree. Deepcover as a tall Belgische in sailor stripes gives the shibboleth then handballs a Vegemite baguette sloshes seven Foster’s tinnies in four pots heaping with head. Bombay shanti shanti bombed on hashish not bliss. We’re not buying your old shoe but we will buy a bright prophecy through a freshly torn backdoor to our Cronulla. A spaghetti Western funeral & the bit I don’t understand is the stuffed koala chained to an ankle trawling across the sand like a fisherman’s slack line. Read the rest of Overland 228 If you enjoyed this poem, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four outstanding issues for a year Liam Ferney Liam Ferney’s most recent collection, is Hot Take His previous collection, Content, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. His other books include Boom (Grande Parade Poets), Career (Vagabond Press) and Popular Mechanics (Interactive Press). He is a media manager, holder of the all-time games record for the New Farm Traktor Collective and convener of the Saturdays readings in Brisbane. More by Liam Ferney › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 31 January 202531 January 2025 · Racism The QUT Symposium: holding the line against rising racism Elizabeth Strakosch, Jordy Silverstein, Crystal McKinnon, Eugenia Flynn, Natalie Ironfield, Holly Charles, Priya Kunjan, Roj Amedi and Lina Koleilat Last weeks's QUT Symposium met in the staunch tradition of the Brisbane Blacks, who have fought for sovereignty, land rights, liberation and an end to racial violence for decades. It was a gathering of Elders, academics, organisers and frontline community workers who speak, theorise and embody the truth about race and racism in this place. It refused to clothe itself in multicultural platitudes about tolerance, or to speak about racism only in terms of individual prejudice. 29 January 202529 January 2025 · Palestine The demonisation of the Palestine movement fuels anti-Muslim racism Mariam Tohamy and Miroslav Sandev The spate of anti-Muslim racist attacks around the country are being fuelled by the anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies of mainstream politicians. Political attempts to undermine the Palestine movement and bipartisan support for Israel’s genocide are causing this.
