Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: remote

  • Growing Pineapples in the Outback

    Growing Pineapples in the Outback

    Allowing one’s parents to remain in the family home is the desired objective of many children, however this often isn’t possible and if it is, it generally requires great sacrifice and dedication. Rebecca Lister and Tony Kelly made the decision to leave Melbourne and move to Rebecca’s birth place Mt Isa, to care for her partially blind, aging mother; 92 year old Diana. Making the move to Mt Isa, allowed the authors not only to ensure Diana’s safety but also to enliven her life by reviving her interest in activities and the community in general.  Their jointly written, beautifully crafted memoir gives the reader an insight into the resultant rewards, challenges and day to day experiences.

    Returning to her family home to spend precious time with her witty, feisty and determined mother, Rebecca is not only able to explore her formative years but also to obtain a greater understanding and appreciation of this loveable but frustrating woman. Despite experiencing a life of sadness and tragedy, Dianna nevertheless maintained her fight and sense of the ridiculous. Tony on the other hand builds a close relationship with his mother-in-law, while at the same time experiencing the trials and benefits of outback living and its idiosyncrasies.

    Written with humour and understanding, this book is funny, poignant and filled with not only love but also respect for a caring, gentle woman in her twilight years.  By writing the chapters alternately, the authors give the reader a different perspective on the same events.

    I highly recommend this loving account of family and place to not only readers who are/have been careers, but also to those who enjoy reading about individuals who have made a ‘sea change’.

  • The Far-Back Country

    The Far-Back Country

    Raw and poignant Kate Lyons lays bare the secrets and violence that lie hidden in many families:  a legacy that saw many leaving their home, eventually creating a life far different to that which they knew.

    In Far Back Country, Ray leaves his home at the age of fourteen to escape the violence after a particularly violent confrontation with his dad.

    He builds a new life, always on the move as a shearer’s cook or labourer, picking up work as he moved about the outback regions of Australia, always as a loner, worried that the violence of his past was somehow inherited.

    When a man’s body is found in a country pub, with Rays wallet and papers with him it sets of a train of events that will see family secrets come to light: secrets kept hidden for many decades. Ray’s sister Ursula is contacted to come and identify him and collect his belongings, but when she takes a look at the man supposed to be her brother, and even allowing for all the years since she saw him, she realises this is not Ray.

    She decides that perhaps it is time to try once again to find him and sets out to follow his pathway over the years to discover what it was that made him disappear so completely. Her journey leads along a pathway which would bring back memories of a long-forgotten time in her own life, offer solace and heal the wounds of long ago.

    Emotional, stark and beautifully constructed The Far Country is more than a work of fiction, as reading through the pages it is very hard to define whether this is, or is not, a biography as Kate Lyons has captured the very essence of reality that was and still is a component of outback living and many people’s lives.

  • Back of Beyond

    Back of Beyond

    On the front cover of the book it says “One woman’s remarkable story of love, adventure and disasters….in the Gulf Country.” I think rather, it is the story of one remarkable woman! She adopted a life she knew nothing about, in a region she was a stranger to, and worked alongside the men all day. The Gulf Country refers to the land south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and just below Normanton.

    Jenny fell in love at first sight. Rick was also smitten with her, and even though she was to travel overseas for a year with her nursing friends, he waited for her return. They always knew they wanted to be together. Rick was to become a manager of McAllister, which was land, completely undeveloped, and so the two of them set off to begin an enormous task. Luckily Jenny had been raised on a farm near Deniliquin, and had experience with horse riding, and country life. Rick and Jen arrived at the property where a small shed was their only shelter. A man called Paul lived in the shed with them while they began the enormous task of fencing the property. From here, they were able to make their first purchase of livestock.

    Jen couldn’t work out why she felt nauseous. Then she realised she was pregnant. Over time she would need to tie her jeans up with string, and getting on with the jobs at hand. With no running water, electricity, or phone coverage, she cooked in a mud oven, and still worked alongside the men. When she did get to Mt Isa to see a doctor, he suggested that she give up horse riding for a week or two, but as it was muster time this just wouldn’t work. All was well for her, and when she did move to Mt Isa for her delivery, she was very healthy.

    The baby had a meat safe for a cot and was thoroughly loved and happy in the house that Rick was now building. Slowly progress was made, although there were always paddocks to fence and mustering to do. Jen was able to start a little garden of her own, and supplement her mainly meat diet. Gradually tanks were built so water didn’t have to be carted, and the house even boasted a washing machine that Ric had salvaged from the dump.

    The many trials, including the weather, (cyclone season was unpredictable), and the insects, and the heat, as well as lack of electricity, cemented Jen and Ric’s love of their patch. As the land flourished, so did they: their family felt the love of the country, and a lifestyle and love, which drew them to such an amazingly remote place.

    Back of Beyond is set in modern day Australia and even thought it reflects some of the struggles the earlier pioneering families must have faced, it also pays tribute to the many women who have faced challenges in their lives, made the most from the experience, going on to prosper even when times were beyond tough and tomorrow was a day to far away.