On the Macintyre River at Goondiwindi Robyn and Rob Lucas have sculpted a retreat from acres of boxthorn.
Story By Mandy McKeesick
"We moved here in 1985 and we’ve been pushing back the boxthorn ever since,” Robyn Lucas says as she stands with husband Rob in their garden on the banks of the Macintyre River at Goondiwindi, in southern Queensland. Looking across the 30 metres to the opposite shore, one can see what she means for there is a maze of prickly undergrowth penetrated only by feral pigs and the most determined cattle.
On the Lucas’s side a kaleidoscopic array of roses holds court to arching rivergums while a preened green lawn rolls over a levee bank and falls to the waterline. “The boxthorn was so thick you couldn’t get a dog through it,” Rob reminisces.
This Story is from Issue #104
Outback Magazine: Dec/Jan 2016
