Rex Morris’s fifth novel “Peawaddy” is gracing the shelves of Harrison's Book Country.
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The Isisford-born Mr Morris said the bookshop has afforded him reasonable success “for a bushie who had a limited education”.
The author was born near the Barcoo River in 1940 and from an early age found himself in a saddle that became part of his life from the Cooper Creek to the Georgina River where he did a stint as relief manager on Headingly Station in the 1960s..
“I did frequent the Isa on a number of occasions with lasting memories of leaving the Boyd's and the Isa pubs with an attack of the wobbly boot,” he said. “This passage through life was to be a plus enabling me to speak and write the language of the arid outback.”
"Peawaddy" is inspired by campfire stories in the Carnarvon Ranges, where brutal atrocities were committed on a regular basis back in the 1860s and 1870s by both natives and settlers.
“These bloodbaths stemmed from the land grabbing of the settlers, peacefully or otherwise and on the other hand the natives objecting to the loss of what they thought was rightfully theirs,” he said.
“The book does not boast historical fact, but cuts close to the bone when it showcases our violent past.”
His other books "Retreat", "Watttown", "Bastard Country" and "Black Velvet" can still be obtained at Harrison's Book Country.