Yuku free message boards

Finally, I catch up on this wonderfully evocative back story. I'd like to echo what so many have said, particularly in view of the desire most felt to find a book to fill in the details. Australia as a film had so many things going for it but I felt that the sum of its individual parts far exceeded the whole. Something was missing. That something has been replaced with this cycle of stories. We needed the background, mostly because in that lies the real story of the film...two real stories, in fact. There is that terrible tragedy of Gallipoli that shaped men like the Drover - as well as the brutal racism that existed in Australia - and many might say still hangs over its society today. These were the real issues of the film which somehow seemed to get lost in the spectacle, as if the director almost had too much to say - and as a result said not enough.

Roo, you did the opposite. In this spare and pure prose, you gave us the real kernel. It break the heart but is so real. I find myself increasingly weary with filmmakers and writers these days who seem to take the easy way out too often. This is the kind of uncomrpomising story I want to read. Although I love to have this quality of work on DBB, I have to ask myself....shouldn't this have a wider audience? Roo, you are a writer of real talent and empathy. It's time for a larger stage... gorgeous work. Justice has been done to those wonderful characters in this story - and it is a period of history that has always resonated with me. Loved it...