Thanks to my team at HarperCollins: it was the muffins! Thanks to Shona Martyn for the new path, Anna Valdinger for the laughter and the entire team for seeing my vision and coming along for the ride. To my ex-hubby, John, thanks for not being like Charlie Lewis and being the best dad to your kids, and to the Treasure family for being troopers. Thanks also to the team at Penguin for bringing Jillaroo into the world over a decade ago. Look where it has taken us! How exciting to have rural voices captured within books everywhere on the shelves!
And mostly to my dogs, Connie, Rousie and Indi, and ponies Jemma and Jess, thanks for waiting for me to leave my desk! And to Dreams, my most beautiful horse, I know you have and will continue to carry me and give my life wings.
And lastly to my readers: you are the ones who bring my books alive. I hope they help you to look within and see how you can shine your light out into the world. And if you have land, I hope this book inspires you to team up with Mother Nature so the health of our planet is assured.
Love always,
About the Author
Rachael Treasure lives in southern rural Tasmania with her two young children and an extended family of Kelpies, chooks, horses, sheep and a time-share Jack Russell. She is passionate about encouraging non-readers to read, as well as inspiring farmers to consider regenerative agricultural practices and animal handlers to better understand their dogs and livestock. Rachael has been the proud patron of Agfest, Tasmania’s world-class agricultural field day run by Rural Youth volunteers.
Rachael’s first novel, Jillaroo, published in 2002, was a bestseller and has become one of Australia’s iconic works of fiction, inspiring other country women to contribute to the genre of contemporary rural literature. She has gone on to write three other bestselling novels, two collections of short stories, a TV drama and a country song with The Wolfe Brothers.
rachaeltreasure.com
Rachael Treasure
@rachaeltreasure
Other Books by Rachael Treasure
Jillaroo
The Stockmen
The Rouseabout
The Cattleman’s Daughter
The Girl and the Ghost-grey Mare
Fifty Bales of Hay
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2013
This edition published in 2013
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Rachael Treasure 2013
The right of Rachael Treasure to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Treasure, Rachael.
The farmer’s wife / Rachael Treasure.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 9634 6 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 1 7430 9823 3 (epub)
Family farms – Australia – Fiction.
Women farmers – Australia – Fiction.
A823.4
Cover design by Natalie Winter
Cowgirl on oil drum by Pete Starman / Getty Images; all other images by shutterstock.com
The Farmer's Wife Page 37