Originally a country boy, I came to the city with my parents during World War 2. I left school at 15 to work for three years as a copy boy and later cadet journalist on a Sydney newspaper. But I did not like city life and returned to the bush where I worked on some of the vast cattle stations. I also did a bit of droving and horse-breaking. The latter trade was my part time hobby for the following 45 years. Western novels were very popular in the bush but authors who did not know their subjects were treated as jokes. That made me very conscious of correct details when I started writing free-la more...
