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Adam Lindsay Gordon has many
legends and the Strathdownie legend is one which continues to this day.
It was a verse, allegedly written by Poet Gordon when droving a mob of sheep
near Strathdownie west of Casterton in Victoria and near the South
Australian border.
It appears Gordon requested
permission to camp his mob of sheep in a paddock of the Strathdownie
Station, then owned by the McEachern family for the night. Permission
was refused as the station owner had given the grazing rights to Cobb and Co
for their horses. The next morning Gordon had moved on but had left a
note written, according to the author Geoffrey Dutton, on the gatepost, it read thus:
Death and Damnation to
Strathdownie Station,
May your water and grass grow scarce,
And as for McEachern,
The bastard wants fetching,
And shoving up Cobb and Co’s arse!
Another source says it refers to
Mr Mac Quigan, the Manager of the Station for Mc Eachern, it reads thus:
To Hell and Damnation to
Strathdownie Station,
May your water and grass be scarce,
And as for MacGuigan,
The bastard wants friggin,
And shoving up Cobb and Co’s arse!
According to Geoff Dening, another version of the legend is that Gordon
carved the verse into a tree at Strathdownie and the station manager had the
tree cut down and burnt and that the verse used to reappear written in
charcoal on fence posts at the station after that.