There were some battered, bearded bushmen who seemed to be friends of Colin's, though he did not introduce them to his wife, and who talked on topical subjects in a vernacular which Lady Bridget thought to herself she would never be able to master.

There was a professional horse-breaker whom McKeith hailed as Zack Duppo, and to whom he had a good deal to say also.

There were some gangs of shearers or stockmen or what not, who appeared to be the following of two or three rakish, aggressive looking males upon whom the bushmen scowled.

Union delegates, Strike Organisers, McKeith explained.
After that station, marks of civilisation diminished.

The Noah's Ark humpeys in their clearings became few and far between, and the long lines of grey two-railed fences melted into gum forest.