Biff Mc Leod is unorthodox, laid-back and deceptively eagle-eyed. His humour is original. Take his quirky description of a bar fight- sounds like a short-sighted hippo trying to root a rhino in a glass factory.With Anika, his accomplished kick-boxing partner from Melbourne, they take on the drug scene, picking up clues in unlikely places from Brisbane to Cairns.There's Ugly Dougie, known for wrapping barbed wire around his victims and feeding them to the crabs. And...

This inspiring collection features nine captivating stories about ordinary bush men and women who lead extraordinary lives.There's the island cattleman who swims his herd past toothy sharks and beady-eyed crocs; the pineapple grower who builds a stone church for his community; the timber worker who becomes a champion woodchopper; and a dairywoman who, at eighty-eight, is still rescuing birthing cows from the brink of death.Rhylle's effortless, larrikin style will have you lau...

Ryle Winn had never had it so good. Happily, married with grown-up children, he'd just bought his own cattle property and owned the smartest working dog around. Equally at home running brumbies up north or defending dispossessed property owners in court, Ryle had become used to expecting the unexpected - but he hadn't counted on a health crises that proved his biggest challenge yet.The doctors classified Ryle as a survivor personality, and they weren't wrong. A different man emerge...

In this impressive collection, Ryle Winn introduces eight real-life heroes, each with an extraordinary tale to tell. We meet a fencing contractor who proves you can't judge a book by its cover; two octogenarian sisters with a tragic family secret; a racing enthusiast and horse-breeder who gets the shock of his life; and a gutsy timberman who has sidestepped his date with the devil on more than one occasion.Ryle's unforgettable stories are moving and uplifting, and proof that the bes...

Have you heard the one about the codger who fed his greyhound his heart medicine to make it go faster at the track? What about the bloke who was growing six-foot ears of corn in his ute? Or the penny-pinching Scotsman whose last request is to be buried upright?Everyone knows someone who tells a good story. You find these blokes propping up the bar, or at the sale yards, or you run into them down the road. Ryle Winn knows more of these yarn-spinners than most - he's ...

CHOCK-A-BLOCK FULL OF CLASSIC AUSTRALIAN YARNS, JOKES AND NONSENSERyle Winn is the master of the cock and bull tale, and this is a collection of the funniest yarns he's ever heard. There's something for everyone – life-of-the-party jokes, rib-tickling pub stories and fair dinkum yarns, which are worth the wait for the punch line. All of them remind us that we're a motley mob who view the world from down under.This book is full of the sh...

Master storyteller Ryle Winn learnt his craft in the backblocks, experimented with it in the public bar and honed it in between musters and sale yards.In this third collection of true tales, animals rather than people take centre stage – with a tip of the hat to Henry Lawson's much-loved story 'The Loaded Dog'. Meet a ute full of wayward working dogs, a pesky bush turkey determined to outsmart its landlady, a rogue circus elephant staking a claim on the road and an orphan pig with a...

An earthy, entertaining collection of yarns about twenty larger-than-life outback characters. Meet Ron Canlin, who one day began sculpting the sandstone walls of his opal mine. Ten years later, every drive and tunnel in Ron's claim is full of wonderful sculptures - the eighth wonder of the world. Or Peter Venables, with his flowing white beard, puffing his pipe like a character from the pioneering 1800s, whose teams of Clydesdales plough, sow and harvest the crops they eat. Or Janie Marsha...

Living in the wilder parts of Australia has its challenges.These are the true stories of one person's journey from Australia's suburbs to the remote northern Outback, and then to remote rural Tasmania.It is a story of deadly snakes, bush drumming, killer bicycles, Tasmanian tigers, and barramundi fishing.Compiled by Matt Flynn, a former Northern Territory journalist who also publishes fishing and outdoors magazines.

Patty spent the first thirty three years of her life living with her family on remote outback station properties - Old Bando, Minetta, Old Outstation - in south west Queensland, Australia. When her brother, Kerry developed a brain tumor, they moved to live in Charleville - a small outback town. Patty has an understanding of the land, and a great love of reading. Look beyond the words to a life lived devoid of any luxuries, without ever a complaint, but full of simple joys, happiness and lo...

Peter Moore left the city behind in 1952 to become part of a dying breed - a long-distance drover. In My Droving Days we follow his progress through the 1950s as he rubs shoulders with the larger-than-life characters - and their dogs and horses - who trekked along the outback stock routes of western Queensland and New South Wales.Meet the world's worst cattle dog and the station hand, Charlie, who blows an outside toilet (and its contents) sky high; thrill to the high dram...

He was a pioneer trucker in postwar Australia - a time when outback roads were little more than corrugated dirt goat tracks. This is a story of vast distances, ill-equipped machines, heat and dust, humour and mateship.'If you had worked with them, if you had driven with them, if you had had a drink with them, if you helped them when broken down, you would have been proud to be one of them and called them mates.'Meet Ray Gilleland, pioneer trucker in postwar...