Nelson Bay's Penny Lane wins Cloncurry Poetry Prize 2023

The 73-year-old Nelson Bay resident has won the Cloncurry Poetry Prize and a whopping $10,000 for her poem Remembering Mary.

Run by Cloncurry Council in Queensland's north west, this year's competition called on poets to honour the country's outback heroes.

Penny's poem focuses on her husband's great-great grandmother Mary Bassett Lane. Born in Cornwall, Mary embarked on a perilous sea journey to Australia soon after marrying, forging a new life on an outback cattle farm, and tragically losing three of her children.

While she lives in a picturesque coastal town in the NSW Hunter, Penny said she has an affinity for the Queensland outback and travels there frequently with her husband.

"We love western Queensland. We go there quite a bit with our caravan, and take a tent for the more inaccessible places," she said.

"We love the emptiness... the red dirt, the scrawny eucalyptus trees, the spinifex, it's just what we love to do. Oh, and the birds! I'm a great bird watcher."

The circumstances surrounding Penny entering the competition were quite serendipitous. One day in March she was having lunch at a cousin's place. Her other cousin - a bit of a family historian, was visiting from Queensland and conversation turned to Mary.

When she got home, Penny found a copy of her local newspaper on the doorstep. The paper featured an article about the competition, and recalling the conversation from lunch, she knew she wanted to write about Mary.

Having lost a child herself, Penny said she was able to empathise with Mary's story on a personal level.

She then went about researching Mary's life. Her husband's experiences growing up on a farm in Dalby helped her understand what it might be like to live on an outback farm.

"When my husband was a little boy, he'd go out on the property there and walk around with a big stick for killing snakes.

"He was involved in life on the farm, as Mary would have been - butter churning, laundering without electricity... I was able to get the flavour of Mary's life through his experiences."

After she had completed her research, Penny set about writing the draft of her poem - which took around a week to complete.

"The first thing I do is come up with a first line. When I have a first line, that sets the tone... for the rest of it."

She then set about refining her work - determining how long the verses should be and playing around with the language using literary devices such as alliteration, assonance and internal rhyme.

Penny had previously been a short story writer, but decided to try her hand at writing poetry eight years ago. Her very first poem - which was also about the outback, won her the Fellowship of Australian Writers Prize.

Over the years she has developed a passion for telling the stories of Australian women throughout history.

She has put together a book called Unknown Hands based on these stories, some of which feature her own family members, but has never submitted it for publication.

"Sometimes I write about women who achieved something (of note) in life, but mostly I write about women who have been ignored.

"For example, the bombing of Darwin in 1942 - we hear about the men on the ships who were drowned, but we don't hear about the (six) girls (who sheltered) at the post office who were killed."

She said the victims were post office telegraphists who were forced to take shelter after staying on to continue their important work, despite an order for all women to evacuate Darwin.

Penny described her competition win as "a bit of a shock" and "an honour".

She says she will use some of the prize money to help fund another trip to Queensland next year, which she hopes will inspire more work.

"Last year we went to the Cape York Peninsula and I recorded the entire trip over 200 six line verses," she said.

"It's the best way I know to recall experiences when I'm travelling.

"Poems capture special moments and places so easily in just a few words."

To read Penny's poem click here and then click on 2023 Winner - Penny Lane.