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

“But I had my fingers crossed,” Russ whispered. “Shhhh!”


Brandon couldn’t stop smiling, partly because of Russ, partly because his best friends in the whole world had made his homecoming even more special than it already was and partly because he was, finally, home.


Russ put Duran Duran on the stereo and when Stig reappeared, with Craig close behind, they were carrying drinks with ice in glasses, not plastic cups. There was pizza and sushi, not peanuts and chips. And people to talk to about music, celebrities, and fashion, not the heat, those bloody Abos,and the price of gold.


“So what are you going to do now?” asked Stig after the excitement of Brandon’s return had died down. “Now you’ve resigned.”


Brandon shrugged. “Not sure. Haven’t thought about it. Take some time off I guess. I need a break.”


“You had two months in Europe last year, bitch,” said Russ.


Chapter 36