Out of Time - Roaring into Queensland in '69
A rugged but true tale of an 18 year old youth travelling through outback Australia in the late sixties.
'It was in the early hours of the morning that I suddenly felt an extreme tiredness that seemed to take over my senses completely. My now befuddled brain was struggling to function as I made my way off the road towards a cane field. If I can just get an hour of shut eye, I’ll be okay, I said to myself as I lowered my body to the ground. Oblivion took over immediately and completely. I slowly became aware of a strange sensation of movement all around me. Rousing myself from my slumber I suddenly came to the realisation that some furry creatures were scurrying all over my torso, and that one of them seemed to be nibbling at some of the unhealed scabs that still studded my face. ‘Bloody Hell! Rats!’
‘Toughen up’ had certainly become the catch cry for a young teenager travelling rough throughout the back blocks of Southern and Western Australia, but nothing could have prepared Bruce for the testosterone driven shearing sheds of outback Queensland in 1969!
Following on from Bruce’s first memoir ‘Catch The Wind – From The Nullarbor To The Far Northwest in 68’ this entirely new memoir faithfully records his always memorable, sometimes brutal, but often hilarious ongoing travel adventures.
Meet feared shed fighter Knuckles as he bullies his way through the shearing season with overwhelming menace and physical violence, while rouseabout car racing fiends Gaz and Bluey make the regular 50 kilometre trip to the pub the most hair raising experience of a lifetime.
Meanwhile the extremes of the hard work in the shearing sheds demanded a high protein diet that was almost as difficult to describe as it was to digest.
Bruce had left his home near Melbourne in search of adventure and respite from a broken heart: what he found was some of the wildest characters to be found in the Australian bush.
Join Bruce in this rowdy coming of age tale set against the dramatic backdrop of rural Queensland.
Genre Bender
Travel, Aussie Tales, Humour, 1960s setting, Biography/Memoir
About The Author
‘Catch the Wind’ & ‘Out of Time’ About The Author Bruce Lowery emigrated from the UK to Melbourne in 1955 with his parents, Bob and Effie Lowery, and his elder brother, Bob Junior. After a brief stay with relatives in Clayton, the family moved to Victoria’s beautiful Dandenong Ranges, where he has had the good fortune to live ever since.
Bruce’s first book is called Catch the Wind: From the Nullarbor to the Far Northwest in ’68. Out of Time describes the second part of his yearlong adventure in the Australian outback. When Bruce returned home to Melbourne, he accepted a position as an office boy with the Australian arm of the German/Belgian imaging company Agfa, and he eventually rose to the position of National Sales Manager.
Over the next 37 years, he participated in various Australian industries, including motion pictures, music recording, medical and industrial x-ray imaging, and printing.
Bruce is a life member of the Olinda Ferny Creek Football Netball Club, having enjoyed many positions that include Player, Coach, President, Secretary and Chair of the Sports Management Group.
He is the proud father of two much-loved daughters, and a grandfather to three wonderful granddaughters. He remains happily married to his wife of over 50 years, Sue.
