Brandon has just graduated from university as a primary school teacher. As he travels to his first teaching post, he wonders what he’s got himself into. From the airplane, the tiny town of Gunnanilla looks no bigger than a cattle station. And when he lands, he steps into heat such as he has never encountered before. Sweating and feeling faint from the extreme temperature, he meets his new boss Mark Petersen, the racist principal of the only school for miles around. Then he meets the school’s other teacher, Mark’s wife Trina, and the students, most of whom are Australian Aborigines. Life in the small town is no picnic. In the summer, the heat is unrelenting. In the wet season, the town is cut off from the outside world and all deliveries are brought to a halt. There is only one television channel. To top it all off, there are any number of poisonous creatures around, such as snakes, scorpions, and spiders. How’s a poor city boy like Brandon, who’s interested in fashion, music, and clubbing and none too confident with his sexuality, going to cope? Enter the handsome, rough-around-the-edges miner, Frank. When Mark warns Brandon that Frank is gay, it seems this town might finally have something to keep him entertained. But how can he meet Frank without drawing attention to his own sexuality? How can anything possibly happen between them in such rough, tough, and macho surroundings?

Desert Country

“Now, you’re not going to tell me you don’t like footie,” said Mark.


At last, the holy trilogy—beer, girls and football; the three badges of Aussie manhood.


“It’s alright,” he said, remembering the time, as a small boy, his mother had sent him into the change rooms after a football match to retrieve his father. All the naked, hairy men showering and smacking each other playfully on the bums with rolled up towels had rendered him motionless. He’d certainly enjoyed that aspect of football.


Mark looked at him for an uncomfortable moment then took a sip of his beer.


Brandon took a great gulp of bourbon and Coke, and then another. He could feel the alcohol warming his cheeks.


“Not quite sure about you,” Mark said, returning his attention to Brandon.


Brandon swallowed a third mouthful of bourbon and Coke and wondered why the hell he hadn’t turned the damned teaching job down.


Chapter 5