The Speewah is a

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

Australian station that is the subject of many

tall tale A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some tall tales are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it n ...

s told by Australian

bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...

. The stories of the Speewah are Australian folktales in the

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985 ...

. The Speewah is synonymous with

hyperbole Hyperbole (; adj. hyperbolic ) is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. In rhetoric, it is also sometimes known as auxesis (literally 'growth'). In poetry and oratory, it emphasizes, evokes strong feelings, and ...

as many of the tales about the place are used to enhance the storytellers' masculinity by relating events of extreme hardship and overcoming the dangers of the Australian wilderness. Typically men talk of the Speewah when they are faced with hard labour as a means of making their jobs mentally easier, though it can also be seen as a way of legitimising their bragging. Speech of this sort is used to make light of the situation or to re-affirm the speakers' masculinity or bush skills to the detriment of others. The Speewah station in

The Kimberleys The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...

, Western Australia, is considered by some to be the original Speewah of legend, but may merely have been named after the legend in homage. The property is listed by the Australian Government as being located at . The town of Speewah is located west of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

on the

Kennedy Highway The Kennedy Highway is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs as National Route 1 for approximately 243 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Developmental Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile S ...

and is considered to be named after the legend.

Location in legend

The Speewah is an imaginary land and its boundaries have never been defined: the Speewah can be anywhere that the storyteller wants it to be, and tales have it situated anywhere from Cape York to the Otways, from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

to Broome – anywhere in Australia. Its location is kept ambiguous and when questioned people from different regions of Australia will give a different answer. 'The men from the Darling Ranges said it was ''back o' Bourke'' and the men of Bourke said it was out West and the men of the West pointed to

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and in Queensland they told you the Speewah was in the

Kimberleys The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, an ...

.' At any rate the territory itself is supposedly very large. When one wanted to close the gate to the station he had to take a week's

ration Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

s with him, and a jackeroo who was sent to bring the cows in from the horse paddock was said to be gone for six months, not due to incompetence (for there are no incompetent workers on the Speewah) but simply due to the sheer size of the Speewah. When the cook was frying up bacon and eggs for the men, he needed a motorbike to get around the frying pan. The dust storms were so thick that the rabbits dug warrens in them. The boundary riders had to make sure that their watches were changed for each separate time zone.

Locations adopting the name

A portion of land owned by Jim Dillon south-west of Wyndham, Western Australia that was settled at the beginning of the 20th century was named after the mythical land of the Speewah. This property (or station) still appears on maps as 'The Speewah' and has caused much debate from the storytelling community as to whether or not this is the original Speewah of legend or whether (which is more likely) it is merely named after the legend in

homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

. This property is listed by the Australian Government as being . There is a "Speewa" straddling the border of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

near . The

Speewa Ferry The Speewa Ferry is a cable ferry across the Murray River on the border between the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria. The ferry is located in the community of Speewa, Victoria, approximately north of Swan Hill, off the road betw ...

across the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

links

Speewa, Victoria Speewa is a locality in Victoria, Australia, located approximately 19 km from Swan Hill, Victoria on the Murray River. It is unusual in that it shares its name with a contiguous locality in New South Wales. The Speewa Ferry connecting it ...

with

Speewa, New South Wales Speewa is a rural locality in the Riverina District of New South Wales, Australia near the Murray River in Murray River Council local government area. It is connected to the locality of Speewa, Victoria by the Speewa Ferry across the Murray. ...

. There is a hidden, private "Speewah" in the south west of Western Australia that has its roots in the original "Speewah" in the Kimberleys. Speewah is also a real place in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

. It is about 10 kilometres west of

– a few kilometres south of the tourist town of Kuranda. It could be described as a bushland residential area.

Crooked Mick

Crooked Mick is a larger-than-life character from Australian Oral Tradition, emerging during the era of the

swagmen A swagman (also called a swaggie, sundowner or tussocker) was a transient labourer who travelled by foot from farm to farm carrying his belongings in a swag. The term originated in Australia in the 19th century and was later used in New Zeala ...

, and

sheep shearing Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...

. A sort of Australian analogue to

Paul Bunyan Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the or ...

, he is always associated with the Speewah; only appearing in stories set in the Speewah . Crooked Mick, like his

American Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...

counterparts Counterpart or Counterparts may refer to: Entertainment and literature * "Counterparts" (short story), by James Joyce * Counterparts, former name for the Reel Pride LGBT film festival * ''Counterparts'' (film), a 2007 German drama * ''Counterp ...

, is a giant of a man and skilled in many trades. Equally hard-working and playful, he is quick-witted and has an appetite to match his unusual size. Crooked Mick is regarded as the

quintessential Quintessence, or fifth essence, may refer to: Cosmology * Aether (classical element), in medieval cosmology and science, the fifth element that fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere * Quintessence (physics), a hypothetical form of da ...

bushman. Nothing was beyond him; he was said to have been capable of a number of impossible or difficult feats (for example, lifting huge weights, shearing a large number of sheep in a short period of time, baking

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

s so light that a gust of wind would carry them, kicking

crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

s up to the moon, and moving mountains) . The reason behind the " Crooked" in his name, while always a physical feature, varied from story to story, with explanations including having one eye higher than the other, a twisted nose due to a crocodile attack, or misshapen teeth (due to a habit of biting the skin of the sheep he ate). Most commonly, however, it was due to possessing a "crooked" walk: a

limp A limp is a type of asymmetric abnormality of the gait. Limping may be caused by pain, weakness, neuromuscular imbalance, or a skeletal deformity. The most common underlying cause of a painful limp is physical trauma; however, in the absen ...

from being

ringbarked Girdling, also called ring-barking, is the complete removal of the bark (consisting of cork cambium or "phellogen", phloem, cambium and sometimes going into the xylem) from around the entire circumference of either a branch or trunk of a woody ...

when he was a teenager or a bent leg from an incident with a water trough . Crooked Mick's vital status varies based on storyteller; a common format followed when telling stories about Crooked Mick is for the teller to describe several conflicting explanations for Crooked Mick's death and then provide the "real" story .

References

External links

Crooked Mick short film website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speewah Australian folklore Tall tales Fictional locations in Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Australian sheep industry