And not everyone is happy about it.

Kym Eitel’s poem, I’m Sorry, Laurie, won the 2008 Bronze Spur Award at this year’s Camooweal Drovers Festival in August.

The poem details a painful case of “mistaken activity” between a husband and wife, most of which takes place in a kitchen.

But the awarding of the prize has upset some bush poetry purists.

Ray Rose, Gracemere, an author and bush poet himself, labelled the poem a “piece of garbage”.

“Myself, and a lot of old bushman are disgusted at this type of drivel being judged first and to receive such a prestigious award as The Bronze Spur- what the hell were the brain dead so-called judges thinking of?” Mr Rose said.

He said the poem was not well received when read out at the Drovers Festival and met with a “stunned audience”.

The poem’s author, Ms Eitel said she wrote I’m Sorry, Laurie a few months ago and decided to take a modern approach.

“Not all bush poetry has to be about cattle dust and spurs,” she said.

“This is a traditional subject matter. As long as it has the rhythm and rhyme, it is still bush poetry.”

The Bronze Spur Award is a written poetry competition where contestants send in their poems to be judged.

Organiser of the Bronze Spur competition Ellen Finlay said she hadn’t received any negative feedback about the poem.

She said there were 43 entries in total which was less than most years.

The Australian Bush Poets Association (ABPA)’s Rules for Australian Bush Poetry Competitions defines Australian bush poetry as: “poetry having good rhyme and metre, written about Australia, Australians and/or the Australian way of life.”

On the 2008 Bronze Spur Award entry form it states: “Poems to be keyed to the theme of rural Australia, its people, animals, way of life and values” and that “All poems must be written in traditional rhyming bush verse with balanced metre, in the style of the ‘Old Masters’.”

The poem’s loudest critic, Mr Rose, said it wasn’t a case of sour grapes.

“Normally I never enter competitions as I have found from experience what us old bushies are up against regarding out of touch, know-nothing experts, like some who claim to be judges,” he said.

Ms Eitel also won third place in the competition with her poem, Lady Bushranger.