Description
His smile was big enough to light the universe.
He lay in a exten ed plaster bed which
engulfed his body but obviously not his spirit.
‘I’m big bad John,’ he chuckled.
city. girl with dreams of the country,
eighteen-year-old Terry Augustus
was training to be a nurse at
St Vincent’s Hospital when she met
John Underwood, a young, born-and-bred
cattleman. Flat on his back in Ward 3,
nursing a serious spinal injury sustained
while mustering cattle, John was itching to
get home. And home he finally went, to his
family’s cattle station, Inverway, up in the
Northern Territory. He promised Terry he’d
write. A postcard arrived a week later.
After five long years of writing letters,
John and Terry married and moved to their
new home – a tent and a newly drilled bore
in the middle of nowhere. Their love for each
other was only matched by their love for this
‘last frontier’ in the heart of the Territory,
where cattle are worked and mustered in the
Dry when the grasses have hayed, and where
the rains, when they come, fill the billabongs
and creeks and bring new life to the land.
Modern-day pioneers, John and Terry
built their station from scratch and raised
and educated a new generation of
Underwoods there. Times were tough and
there was heartbreak, danger and struggle,
but the power of love and the strength of
family ties helped them overcome every
obstacle.
In the Middle of Nowhere is their story. It’s
a story of beating the odds, told with warmth
and a genuine knowledge of the Outback and
its people, and the issues they face today. It’s a
real story of the Territory, and is as vast,
dramatic and inspiring as the land that lies at
the heart of this unforgettable book.
Wife, mother, cattlewoman, nurse,
bookkeeper, cook, gardener,
photographer and counsellor: thes
are just some of the roles Terry Underwood
juggles each day on Riveren Station, which is
situated on the headwaters of the Victoria
River, 600 kilometres south-west of
Katherine. Winner of the Northern Territory
Telstra Business Women’s Business Owner
of the Year 1997, Terry was previously a
Northern Territory Rural Woman of the Year
finalist. She has held positions on the Isolated
Children’s and Parents’ Association,
Katherine School of the Air Associates and
Council, the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s
Association and the Northern Territory
University Council.
Terry lives on Riveren Station with her
husband, John, son Michael and assorted
animals. Her three other children, Marie,
Patrick and Rebecca, return regularly to
contribute to their beloved cattle station.
In the Middle of Nowhere is Terry’s first book.
In good preloved condition. Ex-library book. Remnants of sticker on of plastic dust jacket cover. Doesn’t affect dust jacket.
284 pages
Hardcover