Tough Outback

A Kiwi's stories of misadventure, mining and mayhem In 1989 Mike Bellamy set off for the remote town of Wiluna, on the edge of the Western Desert. Keen to make a buck from Australia's mining boom, the fledgling Kiwi soon realised he'd walked across a frontier into a roughshod world where anyone trying to last longer than a desert sunrise had to watch their back, play by the rules, and keep their wits about them. Bellamy's stories of dongas, dozers and diggers is a window back in time to work-hard, play-hard land, where snakes, spiders and flies were the least of one's worries. Welcome to the tough mining country of Western Australia.