Having grown up on the massive Killarney cattle station near Katherine, NT, Toni Tapp Coutts was well prepared when her husband, Shaun, took a job at McArthur River Station in the Gulf Country, 600 kilometres away near the Queensland border. Toni became cook, counsellor, housekeeper and nurse to the host of people who lived on McArthur River and the constant stream of visitors. She made firm friends, created the Heartbreak Bush Ball and started riding campdraft in rodeos all over the Territory, becoming one of the NT's top riders. In the midst of this busy life she raised three children and saw them through challenges; she dealt with snakes in her washing basket; she kept in touch with her large, sprawling Tapp family, and she fell deeply in love with the Gulf Country. Filled with the warmth and humour readers will remember from A SUNBURNT CHILDHOOD, this next chapter in Toni's life is both an adventure and a heartwarming memoir, and will introduce readers to a part of Australia few have experienced.

Having grown up on the massive Killarney cattle station near Katherine, NT, Toni Tapp Coutts was well prepared when her husband, Shaun, took a job at McArthur River Station in the Gulf Country, 600 kilometres away near the Queensland border. Toni became cook, counsellor, housekeeper and nurse to the host of people who lived on McArthur River and the constant stream of visitors. She made firm friends, created the Heartbreak Bush Ball and started riding campdraft in rodeos all over the Territory, becoming one of the NT's top riders. In the midst of this busy life she raised three children and saw them through challenges; she dealt with snakes in her washing basket; she kept in touch with her large, sprawling Tapp family, and she fell deeply in love with the Gulf Country. Filled with the warmth and humour readers will remember from A SUNBURNT CHILDHOOD, this next chapter in Toni's life is both an adventure and a heartwarming memoir, and will introduce readers to a part of Australia few have experienced.

An outback tale of a woman who spent the prime of her life in the Northern Territory, often struggling to put a meal on the table, told in simple, straightforward language, the narrative zipping along at a lively pace, with one cracking yarn after another....

In 1993 8-year-old Clinton Liebelt went missing from a roadhouse between Darwin and Alice Springs - one of the most desolate places in the world. Australian journalist Robert Wainwright's uplifting and triumphant tribute tells the story of how one child's disappearance united an entire community and the wider Northern Territory of Australia.

Toni Tapp grew up on the massive Killarney Station, where her stepfather, Bill Tapp, was a cattle king. But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers. Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him. Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.

Faith and Monty are both looking for love...in the wrong direction. Faith Forrester is at a crossroads. Single, thirty and living on a farm in a small Western Australian town, she's sick of being treated like a servant by her brother and father. Ten years ago, her mother died of breast cancer, and Faith has been treading water ever since. She wants to get her hands dirty on the family farm. She wants to prove to herself that she's done something worthwhile with her life. And she wants to find a man... For as long as he can remember, Daniel 'Monty' Montgomery has been Faith's best friend. When he was ten, his parents sold the family property in Merindah and moved to Perth to be closer to support services for his autistic brother, and ever since, Monty's dreamed of having his own place. So for the last ten years, he's been back on the land, working odd jobs and saving every dollar to put toward his dream. And now he finally has it. But there's still something missing... So when Faith embarks on a mission to raise money for a charity close to her heart – Dogs for Autism – and Monty's dream property comes on the market, things seem like they are falling into place for them both. Until a drunken night out ends with them sleeping together. Suddenly, the best friends are both facing a new set of challenges... Monty and Faith are both ready to find a life partner and settle down, but have they both been looking in all the wrong places?

'From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperbark trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid- Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.' This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet as these properties are closed to visitors, few of us know what goes on behind the farm gate. So what's life really like when next door is 500 kilometres away, and mustering livestock in their tens of thousands, backbreaking physical labour, and dealing with extreme heat and long hours is all in a day's work? And why would these tough stockmen and women not have it any other way? Bestselling author Evan McHugh gets behind the wheel of his four-wheel drive to find out. Given special access to these properties, Evan goes behind the scenes at Adria Downs in the dead heart of Central Australia, helps drove cattle from the air at Wave Hill and gets a lesson in trapping dingoes at the remote Commonwealth Hill station. Following in the footsteps of the pioneering greats, Evan reveals the fascinating history of these outback stations, and what it takes to work on one today.