further:
past fuel silos and stilted houses
the median now feverish halting
air retains a diesel shimmer.

~ Lindsay Tuggle from 'Calenture' 

Dust Poems brought together six unique perspectives of the road, both from professional poets and professional truck drivers, exploring their experiences of the road.

The Truckies' World

Australia’s truckies have a unique window on the world - traversing urban gridlock and the open spaces of rural highways – and in 2009, we set out to find the poets of this world.

The project was promoted by John Laws through his radio show and launched to the public in 2009 at a special event at Sydney Olympic Park. Original copies of poems were hidden in 5 locations throughout the park, which the public could find through an interactive online map. An ongoing installation of the poems, as well as audio and visual material was displayed in Sydney Park between March and July 2009.

Read the Log Book entries of some of the poets
Watch animated versions of the poems

Partners

Dust Poems was a partnership between The Red Room Company and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority and was made possible with the support of The Deloitte Foundation, Bigway Interiors Pty Ltd, and construction companies Billbergia and Wattpac. Thanks go also to Michael Collins (Royal Easter Show) and the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS).