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

He felt his body tense. He’d bought the plastic cups with his own money and put so much time into planning an experiment he thought the children might find interesting and exciting. It was the last straw.


“Who’s been playing in the cupboard?” he asked sternly after the children had sat down. “Vanja, have you been in my cupboard!”


The little girl sat in her seat, sullen and unresponsive.


“I asked you a question, Vanja. Have you been playing in my cupboard?”


“Someone has. There’s dirt everywhere. Your experiments are ruined. We put a lot of time and effort into planting our seeds, but someone doesn’t care about that.”


He paused and glared at each student in turn.


“There’ll be no playtime until I find out who’s been playing the cupboard. Now, take out your pads and write the date at the top of the page.”


Chapter 31