Elyne Mitchell's Brumby books.

The ski expedition to the Cascades, and the brumby we caught there, was in the background of the first children's book, The Silver Brumby, and almost all that I ever learnt about our mountains has helped make the living pictures of the brumby country for the children who read the books. I have stood on snow, just above the shining, unmoving nebelmer that stretches like a lake, islanded by the foothills of the Murray Valley, just as Thowra, the silver brumby, and his daughter, Kunama, stood. I have seen a willy-willy of powder snow, spiralling upwards, completely hiding the figure within it, like Thowra was hidden and whirled upwards. I have felt the bite of the blizzard, its burning sting in the eyes, heard the gang gangs call and seen them flying like ghosts through the falling flakes. I know those narrow ridges that go off Twynam West Spur, where Nooroo's sunset-red mare was standing when the eclipse turned the day into night. From all that I have seen and learnt and loved so deeply, the books have taken life.

Almost twenty years later I peered over the edge of the rugged canyon through which Dale's Creek flows, saw those two pale grey brumbies whom I named Cloud and Mist for my stories, grazing near the head of Quambat Flat: I saw brumbies flitting through the trees around the head of the Ingegoodbee River, heard them call our stock horses at dusk. I rode out to the Tin Mines-and two whole new stories seemed contained in that country. I climbed on early winter snow among the Ramsheads, where hare's footmarks tracked on the shining surface and the heads of candle heath stood above the snow, and it was as though more of Thowra's story was written there.

Elyne Mitchell - Chauvel Country 1983

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