Womba

An Aboriginal Stockboy in the Cattle Country in the Heart of Australia

by F. J. McLeod

Georgian House, 1951, [First Edition], hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, minor vertical crease mark to first half of text block, price-clipped dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, chipping, and small tears, small holes to spine (see photographs)

“This story of an aboriginal boy on a Central Australian cattle station is written by a man who knows, from his experience as a mounted policeman in the Territory, about all there is to know of the life in those parts.
This is a full and clear account, told with admirable simplicity and directedness, of the life of an aboriginal stockboy on Dericka station in the Macdonnell Ranges.  Pictures of station routine are intimate and convincing, and just as convincing, although touched with the mystery of the primitive, are the figures of myall tribesmen, always in the background, sometimes moving forward into vivid focus… Womba is a boy who adapts himself, with ready capacity and wit to the demands of colt-breaking, mustering, and brumby-hunting and all other duties that fall to him; but he is a lad of outstanding qualities, and comprehends the white man’s ways of life better than most of his race.”