The creek through our property reaches us after winding through a wild and beautiful 30-square-kilometre valley to our south called Worlds End. Why the name? Nobody's sure, but the old gold mining town of Hill End is nearby, so that could be a clue. Much further away, there's a 17th century pub in Chelsea, UK called 'World's End', allegedly named after a witch's prophesy at the time that the world would end a couple of hundred years later, in 1881.
Back to the valley. According to the last census our particular Worlds End (I reckon an apostrophe is needed, as in World's, but NSW place names don't carry apostrophes) is officially home to a population of just five people, and for years the only road access these hardy souls had in and out of their valley was over a creek via a dodgy bridge cobbled together with angle iron and old railway sleepers.
Then, following the epic 2018-19 drought and the Black Summer bushfires, there was of course equally epic rain, during which a flash flood burst the banks of the creek and wiped out the crossing. (Followed of course by the pandemic, so perhaps the old witch's prediction is coming true). The locals can still cross when the creek's just a trickle, but otherwise they have to either detour into town across our property or sit pat and wait for the levels to drop.
Thanks to the bridge demolition, our visits to the creek since the flood - for a swim, to fossick for gold, or to have a picnic - have often led to us finding the odd railway sleeper sitting above the high water mark. Five of them in fact, and they're heavy, but with the aid of the quad bike and a lot of grunting and swearing, we've managed to wrestle all five up the hill to our place, where they've been artistically planted, on end, outside the home paddock front gate. I've christened the installation 'The Locals' - they're real survivors, each is full of character, a couple, unsurprisingly, are showing signs of wear and tear and aren't really up to their former jobs, one is a bit beamier than the others etc. I have resisted giving each sleeper a name, and I suspect there are actually more, both sleepers and locals, in the valley and along the creek.
Anyway, they look pretty good standing there, and we may not find any more. That won't be the end of the world, but you can see it from here.