First and foremost a special thanks goes to Sal, who must have spent hours that could nearly be counted in the hundreds at the computer. It really was a combined effort.

I wish to thank Gil and Eunice Campbell for all their assistance, even to the point of listening to me read out rough copy chapters.

Donna Lamb typed my first rough copy manuscript and she didn’t even get a kiss for that, but she may have been very relieved too. Donna also supplied me with valuable historical information.

Scalp, who is so named in the text to fit his formidable reputation as a dingo hunter ($20 bounty paid for each scalp), must be particularly acknowledged for his assistance on geographic locations. He wanted to show me the Kenniffs’ principal hideout and I regret that I never found time.

Smokie provided anecdotes of history in the Mitchell district, for example the fatal stampede thought to have occurred in the 1890s.

The Old Boy provided the humour. It was far more than his jokes, it was more his unique style of description. I said to him one day, ‘What’s this bloke like?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if you gutted him there’d be nothing left.’

Noel Hamilton explained in detail a lot of the bushman activities, such as wild bull throwing and pig catching.

Annette Fuller provided the coffee in her air-conditioned coffee lounge, where the first few chapters were written. I also looked upon her as my casual staff recruitment secretary.

Despite his poor health, Bill Anderson opened up his stables and looked after two of my thoroughbred horses. His hearty laugh was still rumbling out of that massive chest only days before he died.

I write quickly and off the cuff, sometimes not analysing too much. The thought arrives and down it goes. It is a free style that makes writing enjoyable, but it requires careful editing and for that I wish to thank Amanda O’Connell and Katie Stackhouse.