"The ranges are covered with a purple gown." So goes the description of the Great Dividing Range which provides a stunning backdrop to the Macleay Valley.
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They are the leading words to the song "Winter Winds"; the first song penned by Shorty Ranger.
Though his name outside of the Macleay Valley is not a household phrase like that of his boyhood friend Slim Dusty, Shorty carved his own place in Australian country music history, winning numerous awards, producing more than 20 of his own albums and writing hundreds of songs.
Born Edwin Haberfield in Kempsey Hospital on October 9, 1925, he was taken back to Nulla Nulla Creek where his parents were engaged in mixed farming.
He attended Nulla Nulla Public School where he gave a coconut biscuit from his playlunch to a new kid one day and the two became lifelong friends. The new boy was Gordon Kirkpatrick and he and Edwin both had an interest in country music.
As they wrote and played songs, they decided to take up new names which would take them on their respective careers. Gordon Kirkpatrick became Slim Dusty and Edwin became Shorty Ranger.
Their early careers were marked by trips to Sydney and towns along the North Coast in an effort to make their names in the entertainment industry.
Shorty's big break came in 1951, when he came a close second to Reg Lindsay in the finals of Tim Macnamara's talent show, Australia's Amateur Hour, playing to a packed crowd at Sydney Town Hall.
A recording contract with Rodeo Records followed and Shorty had recorded10 sides for the new Australian record label by 1952.
Returning to Kempsey, Shorty married Ruby McGee who he had met at a dance at Burrapine in the Nambucca Valley.
The couple were to have six children as Shorty concentrated on songwriting and recording.
A song he had written in 1943, which was recorded by Slim Dusty in 1957 - Winter Winds - became a country music classic and marked Shorty's success as a freelance songwriter.
Slim had just enjoyed enormous success with his recording of The Pub with No Beer and he was to record a number of Shorty's other compositions as his career developed.
Other country singers such as Buddy Williams, Reg Poole, Reg Lindsay and Lee Kernaghan also recorded Shorty's compositions.
In 1976, Shorty Ranger was offered a recording contract with Hadley Records in Tamworth and the following year was inducted into the Country Music Hands of fame in recognition of his significant and ongoing contribution to Australian country music.
In 1989 he received a special award from the Tamworth Songwriters' Association for writing Winter Winds, and in 1993 was elevated to the Australian Country Music Roll of Renown.
In 2003, Shorty was awarded an ARIA Award after Lee Kernaghan's recording of Winter Winds topped the charts.
The same year he received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to country music as a songwriter and performer.
Shorty Ranger passed away on June 22, 2007 and funds were raised by the Shorty Ranger Memorial Fundraising Committee to have a bronze bust erected at Kempsey Museum, which was unveiled at a formal ceremony on 11 October 2008.
Four years earlier, Shorty and his family had donated to Kempsey Museum a church pew made of cedar from the largest cedar tree in the world, the Sauer cedar, which had been felled at his beloved Nulla Nulla Creek.