The Poppykettle gnomes

Many years ago, after the Spanish adventurers had sailed across the ocean and conquered the people of Peru, seven Inca gnomes decided to set off and see what lay beyond the horizon to the west.

A brown pelican carried the gnomes to the city of Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains. There they found a clay pot with a spout and a handle, and decided it would be an ideal craft for their voyage.

The great Silverado Bird carried the pot and its crew down to the seashore, where the gnomes made a sail and winched on board two brass keys, which they had stolen from the Spaniards, to provide balast. They felt this was a fair exchange because the Spanish had stolen so much silver and gold from the people of Peru. They also loaded sacks of poppy seed as provisions for the voyage - enough to last them several years.

The ship was named the POPPYKETTLE. A silver fish towed the Poppykettle through the water untill the wind cought the sail and blew the little craft out across the vast Pacific Ocean. They were helped on their way by El Nino, the cosmic power that controls the winds, the ocean and the climate of lands around the Pacific.

After a few days the wind dropped and the gnomes were almost wrecked on some rocky islands, which we know as the Galapagos Islands. However, some great dragon-like monsters filled the sail with their hot breath and drove them out to sea again.

The Poppykettle sailed on for months and months untill it was carried close to another island. This time the clay pot was almost shattered on the coral reefs, but the gnomes were rescued by some of the islanders, who showed them a chart to help them find the way on the next stretch of the voyage. Now the intrepid explorers sailed through rougher and colder waters. The wind gathered force and blew up into a storm. The Poppykettle tossed about on giant waves, and the gnomes feared they would all perish in the swell.

After many hours the gale subsided, but the Poppykettle had cracked and was slowly filling with water. Luckily a dolphin had followed them through the storm. He lifted the damaged pot out of the water and carried it on his head, all the way to a far distant shore.

The Inca gnomes left the clay pot and the brass keys on the beach and set off to explore this unknown and unchosed land.

They were the first gnome settlers in Australia.

Over three hundred years later, in 1847, two men were digging in the cliffs near Geelong in Victoria. One of them dug out two brass keys - the very ones that the gnomes had brought all the way from Peru.
Back to site - More on the Author of 'The Poppykettle Papers'