Clancy of the Outback by Phil Kettle & Bob Andersen book excerpt

Welcome to the Outback

Three months ago, my life changed in a way that I never dreamed possible. It was a Friday and it was the thirteenth day of the month, which is supposed to be unlucky for some. And that Friday was definitely unlucky for my Uncle Buck.

Uncle Buck owned a HUGE sheep station way out woop-woop, and he had been mustering sheep all day when a wild storm struck. Sadly for Uncle Buck, he was hit by lightning and sizzled like a sausage on a very hot barbecue.

When we received the news, Mum and Dad were VERY, VERY sad, but that all changed a few weeks later when we got an unexpected call from Uncle Buck’s lawyer.

It turns out that Uncle Buck had left his sheep station to my family in his will. Mum and Dad’s tears turned to smiles – suddenly we owned a sheep station in outback Australia!

Two days later, we had a family meeting to decide what we were going to do. It was decided by two votes to one that we were leaving our city home and moving to the outback. (You can probably guess who was the ‘one’.)

Faster than I could wave goodbye to my city friends, Mum and Dad packed up and headed off to Overflow Station, dragging me along with them.

My name is Clancy, I’m eleven years old and these are the stories of my outback adventures.

Chapter 1

So This Is It?

Two days and 1200 kilometres after we left the city, we arrived way out woopwoop at our new outback home, Overflow Station, about 1000 hectares of not much of anything as far as I could tell. Not one single town, not a tram, train or bus to be seen. Although we did pass a big river at some point, the Darling River, Dad said. Big deal!

My first thought as I got out of our car was how the heck am I going to live here? And my second thought was how am I going to stay in touch with my friends? Then just as I was thinking that things couldn’t possibly get worse, they did ... a lot worse. There was a girl waiting to greet us. Yep, that’s right.

A GIRL!

‘Hi,’ said the girl. ‘My name’s Little Bill. My dad’s Big Bill, the Overflow Station Manager. He sent me over here to say hello. I’m guessing you must be Clancy, the city kid?’

‘Yes, I’m Clancy and I’m the city kid,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘My mum and dad told me there was another kid living here, but I thought that with a name like Little Bill, you’d be a boy.’

‘Well, I’m not a boy,’ announced Little Bill. ‘And I wouldn’t want to be, because most boys I know are pretty useless ... especially boys from the city.’

At that moment, I wanted to strangle Mum and Dad. I wanted to tell them to get right
back in the car and drive back to the city NOW. I was wondering what I’d done that
was so bad I was being made to live out here in the middle of nowhere as my punishment.

In my mind, I made a silent promise to whoever you make silent promises to that if I could just go back and live in the city – please, please, please, please, please – I’d be the best, most well-behaved and perfect boy ever. And I mean EVER!

‘So, city boy,’ Little Bill continued, ‘now that you’re living here in the outback, I’m here to help turn you into a country boy.’

‘Yeah, well good luck with that, country girl,’ I chuckled.

My dog, Brutus, had jumped out of the car and was sitting at my feet. She looked as miserable as I was feeling.

‘What sort of dog is that?’ asked Little Bill.

‘A city dog,’ I smiled.

‘You mean not much good for anything?’ said Little Bill.

Things just keep getting better and better, I thought.

‘Well, I’ll have to turn her into a country dog then,’ said Little Bill, without so much as a smile crossing her face. ‘Like our dogs. It’ll take time, I guess. But if you listen to me, and watch everything I do, you’ll fit right into country life in no time at all, and you’ll probably be able to survive in the outback too.’

‘And if I don’t?’ I asked.

‘If you don’t what?’ she said.

‘If I don’t listen to you, and watch everything you do, then ... what?’

Little Bill narrowed her eyes and stared hard at me. ‘What’s the opposite of “survive”?’ she asked.

I knew the answer to that, so I said nothing, walked around to the other side of the car and grabbed my backpack. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Little Bill shrug her shoulders and walk off towards our gate.

Later on, Mum and Dad told me how lucky I was that I had Little Bill to show me the ropes. What ropes? I thought. But then I realised that showing me the ropes was like showing me around the place, sort of teaching me how to live the outback life.

I shut my eyes and groaned. This was not going to be fun.

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Read the rest of this tale, in City Slicker.

Learn more about the Clancy of the Outback series here.