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

“Yep. I was just standing here reading a magazine and I heard all this screaming coming from the bar. Katy reckoned she saw it coming right through that door, so it must have come in while I was reading me magazine.”


“Thought ya liked snakes,” said Julie, smirking.


“I do, but a spinifex snake is one thing. A King Brown is another.”


Brandon almost didn’t hear Fancy, who’d obviously been hovering in the background waiting for Brandon to stop talking to Julie.


The reserve was where the Martu people lived; a huge portion of land that traditionally belonged to them and which could never be taken away. The government had built houses for them on this land, and employed a liaison officer to manage the tribe, things like keeping an eye on their health and making sure the children went to school.


Fancy glanced up at him. “You wanna come and visit?”


Chapter 18