Lannah Sawers-Diggins was born in 1955 in Adelaide, capital of South Australia. She enjoyed a wonderful and unique childhood on the family sheep station in the north eastern pastoral district of that state. Her primary education was provided by correspondence school and School of the Air. At 11 years of age she followed her three older brothers to boarding school in Adelaide. Life at school in those days was completely different to the 'home-away-from-home' that boarders enjoy today.After leaving school in 1972 Lannah went on to hold various positions in Adelaide, before joining the Bank of Adelaide. During her years there she started travelling interstate on 'trouble shooting' trips. This gained her a taste of life away from Adelaide - she was never to return permanently.Foreign lands beckoned and Lannah headed to England where she lived, worked and travelled for eleven months. Returning to Australia, she settled in Perth and six months later met and married her husband, Stuart. A couple of years later, their eldest daughter, Robyn, was born, followed by Fiona three years after. A job transfer then saw the family relocate across the nation to Sydney. Lannah was heavily involved in all aspects of the girls' early and primary education, through their different schools in and around Sydney and Canberra before finally relocating back to Perth.A love of writing and drawing has woven itself through Lannah's life. Once both girls were safely esconced in secondary school, Lannah experimented in various interests and part time positions, before settling with a small, private family run publishing business which was to last for six years. This provided an insight into the publishing industry so, along with that love of writing, an avenue was paved to finally immerse herself in this passion and to produce two works of utmost personal importance. The first of these was the completed writing of her late father, Brian Sawers', memories and experiences when settling into life in outback Australia ('The Sawers From Pitcairn'). Secondly, 'Bullseye', a compilation of stories recounting the experiences of some thirty six victims and some perpetrators of bullying, a potentially physically and psychologically harmful crime (though, at the time, unrecognised by law in Australia) against anyone of any age, gender or background, that can and does take place at any time and in any place.And now, this book about Australia's mighty outback.
I relocated from UK to live and work in Alice Springs, Australia some years ago and as such I found myself immediately drawn to the concept of sharing outback stories as it is an intriguing and unique subject. The individual descriptions of the outback stations and their location, rainfall, etc., brought home the sense of isolation that exists for the outback workers, visitors and residents. I particularly enjoyed reading about places I had driven through completely unaware of the stations nearby, in particular Winton and Longreach in Queensland. The interview style, question and answer with for example, overseas workers, gave a sense of proportion to the diversity of content providers and allowed for subject matter such as a backpackers experience working as a 'wwoofer' - which again triggered memories for me of my daughter's Australian visit and her work 'wwoofing' in Queensland. Sarah Jane Butfield, Alice Springs, Australia
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