Outside, he sniffed the smells that hung in the quiet stillness – the bitter-sweet peppercorns and the tangy saltbush... Even the dust had a scent of far-off places, as if it had drifted miles. It made you think of warm, red earth being blown along by the wind.

In this timeless story, a boy struggles to come to terms with the loneliness of the Australian outback and the ruthlessness of living and working on a remote property.

With Brolga the cattle dog and her pup Rags as his only companions, the boy begins a journey of self-discovery. It is a journey that will take him outside the confines of the Yamboorah cattle station, and into the vast, unrelenting sandhills beyond.

"It is the deeply human and moving narratives of writers like Reginald Ottley, bringing to life an 'ordinary' boy who survives physical and emotional isolation and loneliness of spirit, who can point the way to survival and to ultimate wholeness." Maurice Saxby