Steve Hawe

After a lifetime in the bush, Steve Hawe has worn many hats. Lately ringer, horse-breaker, farrier and fencer, and most importantly father of five (forever!), he and his partner now own grazing country west of Longreach, Qld. It was here at ‘Spring Plains’, amidst the splendour of the arid lands that he was inspired to write. To his great delight, he came to realise an authors’ hat can be any and all of the above!

At 15, on the outskirts of Young, central western NSW, a fresh-faced, skinny (hatless!) kid stopped for a moment to listen for the school hooter. It was 9 am first day back in ‘73. On his knees at ‘Wordsworth’s Strawberries’ he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. In his mind was the classroom clamour of book-bags on mahogany desks, and a vision of the motor bike he was saving for. Brimming with the opti-cence of youth, he was blissfully unaware of the journey enjoined. Or that his stories would one day be spiced and enriched by the laughter and tears, ‘high-fives’ and train-wrecks of five decades of hard slog in the bush. From a passing parade of workmates, bosses, employees, family and friends; he would amass a precious well of snapshots of personas, wisdoms and events.

He would also learn that hats are earned, and should never be thrown away!