The Jackeroo

The Jackaroo, they breed them tough in the bush

Tim Johnson was a good looking young Australian man of twenty-five when he tired of being overworked and bullied on his adoptive family's farm. He'd arrived with nothing but hope and he left with nothing but determination. He had skill, brains and looks-why shouldn't he succeed? Tramping through the red dust in the baking heat of the Australian outback Tim reckoned there was only one way to go and that was up.

His luck was in when he hitched a lift with a gang of itinerant shearers. This chance meeting gave him a job, mates and a future.

The Jackaroo is the story of that future. Tim is likeable, quick-witted, as he rises to the top of his new job. He's sometimes hasty, sometimes reckless and sometimes wrong, but he's not meanspirited. He's the kind of bloke liked by men and women, and sometimes this gets him into trouble.

As the action follows the shearers' gang on their endless round of sheds, sheep and stations, Tim gets into the swing of things and so does the reader.

Memorable characters populate the story, from Tim himself to the shearers and stationers, to Molly, the love of Tim's life. Tim never turns his back on an opportunity for experience, and the author gives it to him in spades, with a kind of gleeful relish that brings many a grin and a few shocks along the way. Fly a plane without a licence? Enjoy a few off-the-record romps with people who have their own agenda? Dress up in full Western regalia for a show? Try buckjumping and get into the odd fight?

Yes, Tim does it all, and the reader's there, cheering him on.