Book description
A quintessential Australian bushman, Brian Taylor has spent most of his
life on the land. Working as a drover, a stockman, a fencer, a shearer
and a saddler, he has gathered a swag of stories over the years as he
travelled way out past the Barcoo, along the dusty plains and beside the
dry creek beds under the endless southern sky. In A SWAG OF MEMORIES
Brian Taylor shares with us these stories, of the people he has met, the
places he has been and the moments, long-gone, that define the
traditions of the Australian bush. Like those bush poets and
storytellers of days past, Taylor brings to life the characters and the
creatures of the bush: men like Dangerous Dan Smith, a hard,
self-reliant man who had a gentler talent; Father Peter, a parish priest
and occasional hero; Charlie Gibson, an Aboriginal stockman who knew the
land better than anyone; and Banjo, the ever-alert dingo watchdog. These
colourful and evocative bush tales delightfully capture a slight of
Australian life that many of us will never get to see. Luckily, with
this collection, you can sit back with a billy of tea and read all about
it. Brian Taylor has worked in the bush for most of his life - as a
drover, stockman, fencer, shearer and saddler. He lives near Toowoomba
and, with his wife, breeds and trains Arabian horses. He and his family
are life members of the Stockman's Hall of Fame.
