Book Review -By Jill Smith©Jan12
Title: Gunnedah Hero -Author: Clancy Tucker
Publisher: Morris Publishing Australia
Gunnie Danson Is a fourteen year old boy, who hates school. His assignment on the drought and how it affects farms, promises to be dull, he is a town lad and knows nothing of the bush. That changes when he gets a box delivered to him, full of things his grandfather left him. Gun’s grandfather was a special friend and always said ‘you’re the man.’ Gun’s mum suggests he and his dad go to their Uncle’s farm to find out more about the subject. It’s Friday and his dad agrees it would be a good to go, as he needs to catch up with his brother Wirra, about some business anyway.
Wiralee Station is a cattle station that’s been in the family since 1848. Gun always loves going there and he has his own room. He tells his dad he has a lot of reading to do and he settles in to start with his great-great-grandfathers story. The other packages will be opened in the order the old man suggests. In 1910, at fourteen, Smokey Danson was asked to go on the ‘long paddock’, with a heard of under nourished cattle, in a bid to save the family from ruin due to the drought. He had to leave behind his family and school friends, making a journey north without knowing how long it would be before the drought broke. He sets off with the promise to write to his parents and best friend Molloy, to tell them about his adventure. Gun discovers his family history while reading Smokey’s story. The paintings hung in the hall become very significant, among these, his grandfather and his best mate ‘magic’ Billie, and the family graveyard gives him revelations into the past. Gun over hears his crabby aunt Kate making disturbing plans on one of his excursions down to the kitchen to get food. He meets the Managers daughter Jenni, and she introduces Gun to the farm animals and even more of the history of Wiralee station. Gun doesn’t go to a clearing sale with his father and uncle on the Saturday, he keeps reading to well into the night. What he discovers he shows his father and uncle, the final entry, a one page letter, thwarts the plans of his aunt, and changes his own future.
