In the Musgrave Ranges

The Australian outback has always been a place where boys become men, and this 1922 adventure captures that brutal transformation better than most. Saxon Stobart and his friend Vaughan arrive at Hergott Springs dreaming of excitement, but the desert has other plans. Their first night brings a tornado that nearly kills them, derailing their journey and thrusting them into the company of a weathered bushman named Peter, who offers to guide them on camelback through some of the most unforgiving terrain on Earth. But what begins as a straightforward trek deepens into something more urgent: Sax's father, the legendary drover known as Boss Stobart, has disappeared somewhere in the Musgrave Ranges, and no one knows whether he's alive or dead. As the boys push deeper into the desert, confronting wild cattle and the ancient land itself, they must decide whether to find their way back to safety or press on to uncover what happened to Sax's father. Sayce wrote from firsthand experience, and it shows in every dusty mile.