Steve’s Projects
Campdraft
[Qld Edition]
The word is out: Steve has set up a new business (HorseVCowSport) to bring what is soon to be an Aussie classic into reality … CampDraft the board game! It’s such a big project, it has its own website!
Published Works
Last Train to Menindee
When a half-submerged body appears at Menindee Lakes, a mother overwhelmed by the trauma of her youngest son’s schizophrenia insists police abandon further enquiry.
Thirteen years later, her only remaining son travels from Queensland to outback Menindee on the banks of the Darling River. Here, he unfolds a past inextricably tied to the chaos of his younger brother’s life-journey…
One brother reckons with guilt and helplessness in the care of a loved one afflicted with mental illness. The other battles addiction from the confines of asylum, and laments the loss of artistic talent and his all-forgiving Warlpiri wife.
Set against the vast, unforgiving Australian outback, this is a heart-wrenching, nation-spanning memoir of trauma, resilience and the unbreakable bonds of family told with honesty, humility and humour.
My Time of Eagles
Remote Qld, circa ’70’s when wool is gold and wedgies are on the nose. Roxy Bolton, feisty defender of the wildlife enlists her father’s help to create an on-property sanctuary. At Savanna State High, she befriends Tina after a racial slur, and invites her home for a camp-over at the sanctuary. When a solitary, wizened eagle sets vigil nearby, Tina tells of ‘the watchers’, mysterious dreamtime guardian-spirits.
At the local wool-shed dance, Roxy confronts a grazier over a drunken boast of his tally of slaughtered eagles. A strange massing of eagles soon after, and their eventual disappearance leads Roxy to her new friend’s door, desperate for answers. But Tina’s mother remains tight-lipped. For Irene, indigenous elder; keeper of wedged-tail lore, Mother Nature’s curveball invokes disturbing echoes from the dreamtime.
There’s a limited number of copies left: you can buy them directly from me for AU$35 (includes postage within Australia).
This button will open a new window where you can buy My Time of Eagles using PayPal.
Flight of the Owl
My winning entry in the 2021 Mary River Short Story Contest, grew from scribbled notes penned whilst setting vigil beside my mother’s deathbed. From the heart, it touches on the guilt of an often wayward son, but also the kindness of strangers, and laughter in the face of impending grief. ‘Flight of the Owl’ was longlisted in the 2021 Bridport Prize.
Love Dust
‘Love Dust’, a fast moving tragedy about outback truckies caught in a love-triangle, was entered in the annual Winton Short Story Competition. Amongst the winning entries, it was published in Outback Anthology of Short Stories volume 5 (2020)
Sally’s Snoozy Thursday
A fun speculative poke in the eye for pollies and priests. Sally pulls no punches! Amongst the winning entries, it was published in Outback Anthology of Short Stories volume 7 (2022)
frankie76@minkiedowns.com
– found in Bush Journal. A non-fiction story from Steve’s younger days.
Kildare Selfies
A fiction short story that may be closer to the truth than you think.
More Of Steve Hawe’s Published Credits
- ‘Last Train to Menindee’, an unpublished memoir was runner up in the 2025 Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship prize. In Jan ’26 it was accepted for publication by Hawkeye Publishing, and shortly after, was shortlisted in QWC’s annual ‘Adaptable’ competition making it elible for pitching to film and television producers at their Market day in May ’26.
- ‘Beauty’ : 150W entry published in Outback Anthology 10.
- ‘A Funny Thing (about Old Man Drought)’ – shortlisted for 2024 Masters Review Chapbook prize, current finalist for 2025 Eyelands Book Awards (chapbook)
- ‘Outback Paradise’, nonfiction, longlisted Qld Geographic Society’s 2024 themed short story prize.
- ‘When the Devil Takes the Cloak’ CNF ‘Text Power Telling’ (online lit mag)
- ‘When Bee Comes Home’, CNF flash fiction ‘Witcraft Lit Mag’ (online)
- ‘The Sen᷉orita and the Minstrel, a bush meta-phair’, CNF short ‘Outback Anthology 9’
- ‘Kildare Selfies’, fiction short ‘Outback Anthology 8.’
- ‘frankie@minkiedowns.com’, CNF short ‘Bush Journal’, June 2023
