Michael Trant
Author of 'Ridgeview Station'
An entertaining yarn set on a vast outback property peopled with colourful and authentic characters, Ridgeview Station is about love, loss and the spirit of the bush.
Available at your local bookstore or online.
Read Excerpt
Lisa came bustling through the doorway, her cheeks flushed. She was breathing heavily.
‘What have you been doing, Mum?’ asked Kelsie.
‘Oh, not much,’ Lisa said, with a slightly guilty look. ‘Just thought I’d shift some of those rocks in the back garden.’
Pete rolled his eyes. ‘Those rocks’ would be better described as small boulders and definitely weren’t the sort of thing that a woman in her mid-sixties should be shifting about. ‘Where’s young Mister Cook?’ he asked. ‘Get him to help.’
Lisa shook her head. ‘Ash is out fixing the fences on one of the holding paddocks. Anyway, there’s only a few rocks, and Jack brought the loader round for me so I just have to chuck them in the bucket. He was going to help, but then he thought he heard Graham’s plane, so he shot off down to the airstrip. That was half an hour ago.’
Pete grinned. ‘That was convenient of him. How about you wait till Ash gets back and Murray and Alexi arrive, and we can all give you a hand, eh?’
‘Yeah, maybe. Those rocks are a bit bigger than I thought –’ The sound of a light plane buzzing overhead made her pause. ‘That’ll be Graham bringing Alexi. With any luck he’ll be a big burly sort of a fellow and we can get that job done without Ash.’
West Coast Fiction Festival
Saturday 3rd November 2018 – Rendezvous Hotel Perth – 9.00am to 11.30pm
An amazing line up of over fifty authors, all converging on Perth. Meet your favorite writers and join them for the cocktail party afterwards.
About Michael
Michael Trant is a WA country boy just beginning his new life as an author, following a wide range of careers from marine draftsman to farmer, and pastoralist to FIFO pot-washer. Michael is now based in Perth, having grown up on the family farm at Eneabba, before moving to Geraldton then out to Yalgoo. His debut novel Ridgeview Station was inspired by his time on Gabyon Station, and he highly recommends a visit for those curious about life on a sheep station.
When he’s not writing, Michael can be found plucking away at his guitar in attempts to replicate his idol Tommy Emmanuel, or swearing at his beloved Fremantle Dockers.
He still travels to Three Springs to drive tractors ‘just to keep my hand in,’ but despite the advent of autosteer machines, refrains from taking the laptop to write, as that would not end well for power poles, fences or trees.
Michael began writing with his highly successful blog – ‘A Farmers Way of Life,’ where he used humor and anecdotes to give an insight into life on a family farm. The blog is now archived, but you can read his early writings here.