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A Sunburnt Childhood
For fans of Sheryl McCorry's DIAMONDS AND DUST and Sara Henderson, this is the story of Toni Tapp Coutts's extraordinary childhood on the legendary Killarney cattle station in the Northern Territory as the eldest of ten children and daughter of cattle king Bill Tapp.
Toni Tapp grew up on the massive Killarney Station, where her stepfather, Bill Tapp, was a cattle king. But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.
Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.
Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.
Toni Tapp grew up on the massive Killarney Station, where her stepfather, Bill Tapp, was a cattle king. But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.
Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.
Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.
336 pages, Paperback
Published March 22, 2016
23 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Toni Tapp Coutts
6 books5 followersBorn and raised in the Northern Territory, Toni Tapp Coutts has had a varied career, from living on cattle stations, riding in campdrafts and barrel racing, to owning a variety store in outback Borroloola and a dress boutique in Katherine. She was shortlisted in the 2002 NT Literary Awards for her story 'Daisy & Dora'. She spent time at Varuna the Writers' House in Katoomba NSW in 2009 to work on A Sunburnt Childhood. One of the chapters from the memoir, 'Walking the Wet', was published in Meanjin Quarterly Review in March 2010.
Toni is a leader in her community in Katherine, working for the Victoria Daly Regional Council and organising leadership groups for women within the vast council area. She has been an elected member of the Katherine Town Council for more than ten years. A mother of three, she lives in Katherine with her husband, Shaun. She is the aunt of MasterChef 2013 runner-up Lynton Tapp and of The Voice 2014 finalist Holly Tapp.
Toni is a leader in her community in Katherine, working for the Victoria Daly Regional Council and organising leadership groups for women within the vast council area. She has been an elected member of the Katherine Town Council for more than ten years. A mother of three, she lives in Katherine with her husband, Shaun. She is the aunt of MasterChef 2013 runner-up Lynton Tapp and of The Voice 2014 finalist Holly Tapp.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 9, 2019
An interesting and engaging tale of growing up in the Northern Territory of Australia. The author was born in Alice Springs and moved with her family to Killarney cattle station when she was six. Her memoir tells the story of growing up in the wildest of countryside, initially with no house or facilities of any kind.
As I was reading I began to feel that the most interesting person in the whole book was the author's mother. She deserved a medal. She took three children under six into the back of beyond where there was no running water, no refrigeration, no sanitation and where they all camped out under the stars in the heat and the cold. She then gave birth to seven more children and raised them all. The housing situation did eventually improve but it took a long time!
The author tells her story well, describing the good and the bad, and filling the book with anecdotes about their adventures and the lives of the people they met. When she describes the land at Killarney you can almost feel the heat and smell the dust. She really did have a sunburnt childhood.
As I was reading I began to feel that the most interesting person in the whole book was the author's mother. She deserved a medal. She took three children under six into the back of beyond where there was no running water, no refrigeration, no sanitation and where they all camped out under the stars in the heat and the cold. She then gave birth to seven more children and raised them all. The housing situation did eventually improve but it took a long time!
The author tells her story well, describing the good and the bad, and filling the book with anecdotes about their adventures and the lives of the people they met. When she describes the land at Killarney you can almost feel the heat and smell the dust. She really did have a sunburnt childhood.
February 11, 2017
Toni was five years old when Bill Tapp came into their lives. They moved from Katherine in the Northern Territory to the newly purchased Killarney Station – Toni’s mother June had no idea there was no home to move into; she was stoic and they made do with their swags, tin shed, no electricity and no running water. As time passed and more children arrived, Toni and her siblings loved life on Killarney Station – but she hated the “long drop” toilet with the disgusting stench and accompanying king brown snakes, red back spiders and many other creepy crawlies.
Surrounded by a dearth of Aboriginal workers and their families, Toni, her brothers and sisters and the Aboriginal children ran wild; Toni’s Mum and Bill Tapp didn’t believe in the segregation of whites from Aboriginals – therefore they all mingled with the small schoolhouse filled with both white and Aboriginal children. Toni and her brothers and sisters (she is the eldest of ten) spent their days working with the cattle, helping their mother in the homestead and tearing around the red dirt on the many adventures that kids always devise.
Toni says “My sunburnt childhood was full of love, fun, danger and adventures as every kid’s life should be.”
A Sunburnt Childhood by Aussie author Toni Tapp Coutts is filled with stories and reminiscences of her childhood. One such humerous moment was when Toni was in the classroom and her little sister had just started her lessons – she had been told to put ticks and crosses in the appropriate boxes….
“Mum returned to check our work and asked Shing how she was going. Shing proudly displayed her beautifully completed page. Crosses were placed in all the appropriate boxes, and little round cattle ticks with eight legs and two eyes were neatly placed in all the remaining boxes. That was Shing’s verson of a tick and why would she think anything different?”
Toni formed many friendships with the Aboriginal people when she was a child; especially with women who were to become very special to her. Toni now lives in Katherine with her husband Shaun – she has three children and two grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed Toni Tapp Coutts’ memoir on her sunburnt childhood, and have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
With thanks to Hachette Australia for my copy to read and review.
Surrounded by a dearth of Aboriginal workers and their families, Toni, her brothers and sisters and the Aboriginal children ran wild; Toni’s Mum and Bill Tapp didn’t believe in the segregation of whites from Aboriginals – therefore they all mingled with the small schoolhouse filled with both white and Aboriginal children. Toni and her brothers and sisters (she is the eldest of ten) spent their days working with the cattle, helping their mother in the homestead and tearing around the red dirt on the many adventures that kids always devise.
Toni says “My sunburnt childhood was full of love, fun, danger and adventures as every kid’s life should be.”
A Sunburnt Childhood by Aussie author Toni Tapp Coutts is filled with stories and reminiscences of her childhood. One such humerous moment was when Toni was in the classroom and her little sister had just started her lessons – she had been told to put ticks and crosses in the appropriate boxes….
“Mum returned to check our work and asked Shing how she was going. Shing proudly displayed her beautifully completed page. Crosses were placed in all the appropriate boxes, and little round cattle ticks with eight legs and two eyes were neatly placed in all the remaining boxes. That was Shing’s verson of a tick and why would she think anything different?”
Toni formed many friendships with the Aboriginal people when she was a child; especially with women who were to become very special to her. Toni now lives in Katherine with her husband Shaun – she has three children and two grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed Toni Tapp Coutts’ memoir on her sunburnt childhood, and have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
With thanks to Hachette Australia for my copy to read and review.
July 18, 2018
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A Sunburnt Childhood by Toni Tapp Coutts represents my favourite kind of memoir. I love nothing more than Australian outback based memoirs. This entertaining memoir chronicles the colourful life of a young girl growing up in the harsh expanse of Australia’s deep outback, on a cattle station owned by well know figure Bill Tapp. A Sunburnt Childhood is one unforgettable yarn, that provides the reader with an excellent feel for life on frontier Australia.
Toni Tapp Coutts recalls her extraordinary childhood spent in the Northern Territory as a child. Toni was one of ten children, the eldest, who moved to the territory at the tender age of just five when Toni’s mother married the undisputed Australian cattle king Bill Tapp. Toni’s childhood was far from conventional, but it was normal for life in the Territory. Living on one of Australia’s most prosperous cattle empires enabled Toni to develop a strong connection to the land and the people of the Territory. On Killarney, her family’s cattle station, Toni learns to live and hunt off the land, with the help of the local indigenous community. The elders and the women of the area in which Killarney is situated took Toni under their wing. After witnessing many testing moments, from mother nature and the cattle business, Toni, along with her trail of younger siblings, developed a deep affinity to the land. Eventually all good things come to an end and when Toni came of a certain age, she was sent away from Killarney to a boarding school. Her longing for the land never ceased during this time and she desperately tried to make her way back to her happy place. In the meantime, Toni’s stepfather Bill struggled to keep a hold of his weakness for alcohol, which had a devastating effect on his marriage to Toni’s mother, June. Through it all, Toni’s passion for the land shaped her and her commitment constant. A Sunburnt Childhood is a ripping yarn and a valiant testament to the glory of the Northern Territory community.
I have a weakness for memoirs that transport deep into the heart of Australia. A Sunburnt Childhood is a memoir that provides a very good example of life in the red centre of Australia. I enjoyed every anecdote expressed in this memoir by outback queen Toni Tapp Coutts.
Coutts is a natural storyteller and the words on this page had a great flowing quality. She has lived a big and colourful life, which comes across with ease on the pages of her memoir. The life Toni shares with her audience is a vibrant one, filled with treasured moments and times of great despair. She gives the reader a good feel for life in the great expanse of the outback. Toni outlines the beginnings of family life in a tin shed, with no water or electric city, through the establishment of the grand Killarney cattle empire. Toni never holds anything back, there is no restraint in her writing at any point. It is an honest and incredibly brave life, which is so far removed from my own childhood I found it utterly absorbing.
Within this memoir, Toni Tapp Coutts raises a number of key themes. From family relationships, marital pressures, alcoholism, the cattle business and the mismanagement of wealth. She also provides us with a rich insight into Aboriginal culture. Each of these themes are handled well by Coutts and I came away feeling like I had been given truthful education of life in the harsh climate of central Australia.
Setting plays a big role in A Sunburnt Childhood and I was very impressed with the way in which Coutts represented the Northern Territory in her novel. I loved learning more about the extreme weather patterns in the red centre, from the blistering heat to the relentless wet season. At all points the isolation and being at mercy to the elements is strongly felt. However, on the flip side, Coutts also reveals the overwhelming sense of community in outback Australia. The friendships Toni forms and the figures that enter and leave her life at various points leave an impression on this young woman. I am sure the stain they have left on Toni has contributed to the person she is today.
If you are looking for a book that offers an honest and engaging portrait of life in outback Australia, A Sunburnt Childhood is a good place to begin. It is a well composed memoir, that provides an excellent understanding of growing up in and learning to survive in the heart of Australia.
A Sunburnt Childhood, is book #78 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge
A Sunburnt Childhood by Toni Tapp Coutts represents my favourite kind of memoir. I love nothing more than Australian outback based memoirs. This entertaining memoir chronicles the colourful life of a young girl growing up in the harsh expanse of Australia’s deep outback, on a cattle station owned by well know figure Bill Tapp. A Sunburnt Childhood is one unforgettable yarn, that provides the reader with an excellent feel for life on frontier Australia.
Toni Tapp Coutts recalls her extraordinary childhood spent in the Northern Territory as a child. Toni was one of ten children, the eldest, who moved to the territory at the tender age of just five when Toni’s mother married the undisputed Australian cattle king Bill Tapp. Toni’s childhood was far from conventional, but it was normal for life in the Territory. Living on one of Australia’s most prosperous cattle empires enabled Toni to develop a strong connection to the land and the people of the Territory. On Killarney, her family’s cattle station, Toni learns to live and hunt off the land, with the help of the local indigenous community. The elders and the women of the area in which Killarney is situated took Toni under their wing. After witnessing many testing moments, from mother nature and the cattle business, Toni, along with her trail of younger siblings, developed a deep affinity to the land. Eventually all good things come to an end and when Toni came of a certain age, she was sent away from Killarney to a boarding school. Her longing for the land never ceased during this time and she desperately tried to make her way back to her happy place. In the meantime, Toni’s stepfather Bill struggled to keep a hold of his weakness for alcohol, which had a devastating effect on his marriage to Toni’s mother, June. Through it all, Toni’s passion for the land shaped her and her commitment constant. A Sunburnt Childhood is a ripping yarn and a valiant testament to the glory of the Northern Territory community.
I have a weakness for memoirs that transport deep into the heart of Australia. A Sunburnt Childhood is a memoir that provides a very good example of life in the red centre of Australia. I enjoyed every anecdote expressed in this memoir by outback queen Toni Tapp Coutts.
Coutts is a natural storyteller and the words on this page had a great flowing quality. She has lived a big and colourful life, which comes across with ease on the pages of her memoir. The life Toni shares with her audience is a vibrant one, filled with treasured moments and times of great despair. She gives the reader a good feel for life in the great expanse of the outback. Toni outlines the beginnings of family life in a tin shed, with no water or electric city, through the establishment of the grand Killarney cattle empire. Toni never holds anything back, there is no restraint in her writing at any point. It is an honest and incredibly brave life, which is so far removed from my own childhood I found it utterly absorbing.
Within this memoir, Toni Tapp Coutts raises a number of key themes. From family relationships, marital pressures, alcoholism, the cattle business and the mismanagement of wealth. She also provides us with a rich insight into Aboriginal culture. Each of these themes are handled well by Coutts and I came away feeling like I had been given truthful education of life in the harsh climate of central Australia.
Setting plays a big role in A Sunburnt Childhood and I was very impressed with the way in which Coutts represented the Northern Territory in her novel. I loved learning more about the extreme weather patterns in the red centre, from the blistering heat to the relentless wet season. At all points the isolation and being at mercy to the elements is strongly felt. However, on the flip side, Coutts also reveals the overwhelming sense of community in outback Australia. The friendships Toni forms and the figures that enter and leave her life at various points leave an impression on this young woman. I am sure the stain they have left on Toni has contributed to the person she is today.
If you are looking for a book that offers an honest and engaging portrait of life in outback Australia, A Sunburnt Childhood is a good place to begin. It is a well composed memoir, that provides an excellent understanding of growing up in and learning to survive in the heart of Australia.
A Sunburnt Childhood, is book #78 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge
August 12, 2017
This is a wonderful memoir and account of growing up on the famous Killarney cattle station with her idiosyncratic step-father Bill Tapp and an ever growing family of ten children. Toni was five when her mother June married Bill and they moved from Katherine to Killarney. At that time Killarney was very much Bill's pipe dream and there was no proper house let alone running water, electricity or sewerage. Somehow the family prospered and Toni recalls the wonderful times camping outdoors and running free despite the spiders, snakes and scorpions and learning from the Aboriginal women and kids on the property.
With careful cattle and horse breeding Bill Tapp eventually went on to become a very wealthy cattle king, building a huge enterprise, later becoming an alcoholic and sqaundering much of his wealth. Through it all Toni describes the wonderful times that she had, relishing the freedom and the community life and growing to love the red wide open country in the dry times and the wet.
With careful cattle and horse breeding Bill Tapp eventually went on to become a very wealthy cattle king, building a huge enterprise, later becoming an alcoholic and sqaundering much of his wealth. Through it all Toni describes the wonderful times that she had, relishing the freedom and the community life and growing to love the red wide open country in the dry times and the wet.
September 6, 2016
This memoir does a fabulous job at exploring the life in the Australian Bush. It is an easy and entertaining read filled with stories of resilience, substance abuse and hope. At times the narratives overlapped but the book had a real sense of flow, weaving through the stories of the land, the workers and Tapp Coutt's family.
Thank you to Hachette for the signed copy.
Thank you to Hachette for the signed copy.
April 19, 2016
A brave memoir that really resonated for me. It was easy to read, flowed beautifully and the descriptions were eloquently written. As well as being a personal memoir of life on Killarney Station it's an unflinching history of the rise and fall of Bill Tapp and his famous cattle empire.
If you want to know what it was like growing up on one of the Territory's most iconic cattle stations, with a cast of loveable but often troubled characters, I highly recommend this book.
If you want to know what it was like growing up on one of the Territory's most iconic cattle stations, with a cast of loveable but often troubled characters, I highly recommend this book.
March 29, 2017
A Sunburnt Childhood by Toni Tapp Coutts is crammed full of the adventures a young girl growing up on a remote cattle station in The Northern Territory.
The book is full of fun, sun, heat, dust, cattle, horses and an unconventional childhood in todays standards but the norm in the Australian Outback.
Toni vividly describes her beloved Killarney Station with a passion that shines through.
Most enjoyable read.
The book is full of fun, sun, heat, dust, cattle, horses and an unconventional childhood in todays standards but the norm in the Australian Outback.
Toni vividly describes her beloved Killarney Station with a passion that shines through.
Most enjoyable read.
September 9, 2022
a memoir about growing up in the australian outback. not boring but at times too many characters were introduced otherwise it was a interesting insight into how australians lived a couple of decades ago.
April 5, 2016
This is a wonderful story of two of the great characters of the NT Outback who founded a station and a family dynasty from almost nothing. It tells of their humour and courage in creating this place. It is also a story of a family which tears itself apart and yet survives and grows. Told by the daughter who brings the inside story as only one of the family can.
I knew some of these characters and I love the way the author tells their story with honesty, compassion and deft narrative skill. I also love the way she peppers the story with anecdotes which bring it all to life.
Highly recommended!!
Graham Wilson (AUTHOR OF 'CHILDREN OF ARNHEM'S KALEIDOSCOPE')
I knew some of these characters and I love the way the author tells their story with honesty, compassion and deft narrative skill. I also love the way she peppers the story with anecdotes which bring it all to life.
Highly recommended!!
Graham Wilson (AUTHOR OF 'CHILDREN OF ARNHEM'S KALEIDOSCOPE')
April 6, 2024
This book left me feeling really sad at the brutality of domestic violence and alcoholism of which there was so much. This besides, it was neat to read about life in the outback and growing up on the territory. This book would have been an amazing read had it not been for the fact that there were so many people introduced and events touched upon but not gone into detail that I'm afraid I lost interest in trying to remember and therefore was constantly wondering "who's Bill?" etc.
July 25, 2021
It was an interesting read although I thought the author went in to a little bit much detail to keep the story flowing. Great for her family’s history but a little bit boring for the reader.
She gave a great inside to life outback in the 60s growing up as a child.
She gave a great inside to life outback in the 60s growing up as a child.
April 8, 2018
Awesome book on growing up in the Australian outback. Truthful and funny at times. Well worth a read
September 6, 2018
Great. Enjoyable reading.
June 18, 2019
A true story of a cattle empire forged out of nothing but the bare earth and the authors sunburnt childhood full of love, fun, danger and adventures in the vast, harsh outback.
August 13, 2022
Very interesting to see the hardships people put up with, and how they worked ways around them, coming out smiling at the end.
March 27, 2025
Probably not the best memoir in terms of writing but surely was an interesting and captivating read. The author has lived a life I could hardly imagine living myself, though as they say, never say never. The vivid glimpse into the unforgiving outback and Mother Nature, the brutality of isolation, loneliness, and the grip of alcoholism was haunting and eye-opening. Would be a should-read for anyone who is interested in the history of cattle stations, how they were operated back in the good old days, and most importantly, the life story of the legendary cattle king Bill Tapp of Killarney Station.
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July 14, 2016Toni Tapp grew up on the massive Killarney Station, where her stepfather, Bill Tapp, was a cattle king. But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead.
She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.
Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.
Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.
She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.
Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.
Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.
April 13, 2016
i simply loved this book. A good honest depiction of a simple childhood with fabulous adventures funny stories and sadness. Gave the reader a great incite into life in the outback. well written
September 18, 2016
Better than I thought this book would be - very enjoyable - what an amazing life
September 16, 2016
A worthwhile read
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews