If you enjoy history ... Many of you know that all of my novels to date have relied heavily on the Alexander Family archives which date back over one hundred and twenty years and cover station life from the 1880s on. As you can imagine with such a rich resource my interest in history was [...]
Being a dog, I love ferreting about. Most late afternoons you can find me sniffing around the base of freshly watered pot-plants. It must be the dry weather because I'm really beginning to love the scent of wet earth and I've digressed into some of my, dare I say it, puppy habits-digging. Oh yes there is [...]
In my younger days I wanted to drive tractors, not the old jalopy kind with no cabin and a canopy of hessian for a roof, no siree. I've taken on the slip, slop, slap message, and I have excellent skin and hair so I'd hardly go for the old-fashioned trac-tor and risk a skin cancer. [...]
A sniff-a-bility rating is crucial to my line of work. Or, to put it basically, the nose, knows. If a dog were allowed greater freedoms within the two-legged world - yes, even in canine terms there is such a thing as a glass ceiling!, I have no doubt that a few, hand-picked finely tuned dogs [...]
I know, I know, for you film buffs out there, you're thinking Jack Nicholson... as in, Jack's back, 'lock up your daughters!'. Close, so close you're already thinking the next best thing, that would be me. Well, what a fortnight, cars, trucks, removalists, dogs, plants going left, right and centre. As most of you would [...]
Ah, home. The anticipation as the miles dwindle. That view from the rear of the truck as you bump over the last ramp. There's that smell. The scent of knowing. Of knowing that this is where you belong, of knowing where every hole in the fence is and where every buried bone is, of understanding the [...]
Well G'day! I've been pretty busy as everyone knows. Doing the hard yards in the Long paddock droving cattle requires patience, fortitude and determination. Did I mention patience? In truth I've decided that droving cows and calves is a bit boring after a while. Where are the renegade bolting steers, the knarly dry cows, the [...]
I was sure the butler did it. The butler being Butch the cross-eyed sheep dog from the coast. I wouldn't have put it past him, not after last week with that Ghost Dog story caper he pulled on us around the camp-fire. I hate to admit it but I was damn pleased when we moved [...]
So, here I am with the team, three weeks into my droving job. The chilly nights have eased off a touch over the last week and so after the Boss goes to bed we dogs sit around the remains the campfire and discuss the days events. Butch, a cross-eyed sheep dog who has a keen [...]
Well apparently I needed a bit of extra training. Can - You - imagine ! Moi. Actually I'd like to think that with the season starting to bite and work slowing down that it was more of a case of helping an old friend out on the road and giving Jack (that's me) a bit of [...]