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Great Australian Outback Nurses Stories
Stories and memories that capture the experience of nursing in the bush, gathered by the inimitable Bill 'Swampy' Marsh, bestselling author of Great Australian Flying Doctor Stories and Great Australian Police Stories .I've been a trained nurse for almost sixty years now and I've never once gone to work thinking, I don't want to do this. In fact, I've always said how it's been a privilege to be a nurse in areas where there were no counsellors, no psychologists, nothing - just me.With hearts as big as the outback, rural and remote nurses are a dedicated and gutsy bunch who work selflessly to care for their communities, often in isolated and inhospitable conditions, with few resources but plenty of experience, courage and care. Outback nurses deal with it broken limbs, labour pains, snake bites, sunburnt backpackers, lost explorers, vaccinations, defibrillations - even the occasional crook cattle dog. One thing they are never short of is stories to tell.This memorable and eye-opening collection of real-life accounts from nurses in the Australian bush is by turns inspiring, poignant, heartbreaking and hilarious - and Swampy should know. It was while he was researching this book he had a near-fatal fall from a cliff in Kakadu, and experienced first-hand the skill and heroism of these outback nurses in extraordinary situations.Bill 'Swampy' Marsh is an award-winning writer and performer of stories, songs and plays. He spent most of his youth in rural south-western NSW and now lives in Adelaide. Swampy is one of ABC books' bestselling authors of Australian stories; this is his sixteenth book.
352 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 16, 2018
This is a collection of personal vignettes from nurses' lives working in rural and remote locations in Australia. It is not clear what role Bill Marsh had, whether as collector or interviewer or compiler but it is clear that he did not "write" them despite that being claimed - unless the vignettes are all fictional? It is hard to appreciate a work when the claims are so unclear and contradictory. Maybe the hard copy explains on the cover, but the audiobook version sure doesn't. In any case, the glimpses into the lives of nurses across Australia are amazing, eye-opening, hair-raising, and inspirational! Long ago I dreamed of being a nurse flying into out of the way settings on the Flying Doctors airplanes, but I had a totally romantic and thoroughly mistaken idea of the reality of it, and am now so thankful I did not go down that path! I was never brave enough, tough enough, flexible enough, tolerant of human weakness enough, or just plain old physically strong enough to do all the things that these nurses are called upon to do and endure! Every aptitude is challenged to the nth degree it sounds like. These are all well worth listening and relistening to as tales of heroism, for cultural literacy, for insight into remote Aboriginal community life, and to witness what human beings are capable of when faced with the most horrendous challenges with few resources but their own imagination and goodwill. I highly recommend.
December 4, 2023
Nurse, is it true that an apple keeps the doctor away? Well it depends on how hard you throw it and how good your aim is.
Bill “Swampy” Marsh has obviously recorded a lot of interviews with Outback nurses and transcribed them into this book. The result is, for each story, you feel like you’re there actually talking to the nurse.
The stories themselves are sometimes uplifting and inspiring and sometimes LOL funny, like the mental patient who walked beside an outback highway naked, with his underpants on his head and a carrot stuck up his bum, because he thought he was the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, many of the stories drew attention to the fact that, despite massive government funding, Australian aborigines living in remote areas are living in dreadful conditions much worse than any third world countries. They suffer from easily curable diseases. Where does the funding go? Who is actually getting it? Why don’t federal politicians get off their fat arses and go and see these remote communities? I found the book was eye-opening and should be read by every Australian…and we should be ashamed that we let this happen.
As for the book, well, it got a little repetitive after a while, simply because the nurses would come across the same conditions, often working in the same location. I skipped a few here and there, because the book is too long. The author’s biggest mistake is, there is no time reference. Not once did a nurse say, “The date I graduated was xxxxx.” It’s amazing how much impact the story loses when you don’t know “when” it is.
Sorry Swampy, but without a date reference, I couldn’t rate this higher than 3 stars, but good job raising awareness of the shit that remote nurses have to put up with.
Bill “Swampy” Marsh has obviously recorded a lot of interviews with Outback nurses and transcribed them into this book. The result is, for each story, you feel like you’re there actually talking to the nurse.
The stories themselves are sometimes uplifting and inspiring and sometimes LOL funny, like the mental patient who walked beside an outback highway naked, with his underpants on his head and a carrot stuck up his bum, because he thought he was the Easter Bunny. Unfortunately, many of the stories drew attention to the fact that, despite massive government funding, Australian aborigines living in remote areas are living in dreadful conditions much worse than any third world countries. They suffer from easily curable diseases. Where does the funding go? Who is actually getting it? Why don’t federal politicians get off their fat arses and go and see these remote communities? I found the book was eye-opening and should be read by every Australian…and we should be ashamed that we let this happen.
As for the book, well, it got a little repetitive after a while, simply because the nurses would come across the same conditions, often working in the same location. I skipped a few here and there, because the book is too long. The author’s biggest mistake is, there is no time reference. Not once did a nurse say, “The date I graduated was xxxxx.” It’s amazing how much impact the story loses when you don’t know “when” it is.
Sorry Swampy, but without a date reference, I couldn’t rate this higher than 3 stars, but good job raising awareness of the shit that remote nurses have to put up with.
February 6, 2021
I've been a trained nurse for almost sixty years now and I've never once gone to work thinking, I don't want to do this. In fact, I've always said how it's been a privilege to be a nurse in areas where there were no counsellors, no psychologists, nothing – just me. With hearts as big as the outback, rural and remote nurses are a dedicated and gutsy bunch who work selflessly to care for their communities, often in isolated and inhospitable conditions, with few resources but plenty of experience, courage and care. Outback nurses deal with it all: broken limbs, labour pains, snake bites, sunburnt backpackers, lost explorers, vaccinations, defibrillations – even the occasional crook cattle dog.This memorable and eye-opening collection of real-life accounts from nurses in the Australian bush is by turns inspiring, poignant, heartbreaking and hilarious – and Swampy should know.While he was researching this book he had a near-fatal fall from a cliff in Kakadu, and experienced first-hand the skill and heroism of these outback nurses.Outback nurses could have multiple roles of being the one woman doctor, pharmacist, pathologist, paramedic, even the driver,receptionist and cleaner.Nurse Practitioners need to be proficient in detective work and problem solving to ensure all equipment continues to function and best care is provided. Remote area nurses work in a range of settings,with an emphasis on remote Indigenous communities. They also cover mining, agricultural, tourism, refugee and international communities, and more.People living in rural and remote areas who suffer from health issues face many challenges like limited access to services and transport. Time away from home for investigations and treatment can be a problem for some, as can feelings of isolation and loneliness. The staff caring for these people also have to cope with fewer resources than in large centres.Often remaining available for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the position requires a broad scope of skills, providing emergency and health care in the context of family and community.
October 22, 2018
Liked very much, intend to read more by this author.
October 10, 2022
A beautiful anthology of rural and remote nursing stories. Although a lot of the stories are extremely sad and confronting, they're also inspiring to a baby nurse like me.
December 20, 2022
These stories are quite entertaining,stories of the outback and the aborigines. I thoroughly enjoyed it
October 23, 2025
Interesting stories to read between books
January 4, 2018
3.5* Interesting life stories from the Outback.
February 6, 2021
Rated as a 3.5 star in my mind but can’t do halves on the app.
An interesting and at times challenging collection of stories. Like the other collection of outback stories I have read by the same author I find some of the expressed attitudes to other peoples, particularly the Aboriginal peoples they lived amongst and worked amongst, often in an authoritarian role, while at the same time I respect their lived, first hand experience at that time and in that place. Challenging at times.
I did find the stories from about Track 20 onward to be much more respectful and up lifting and will borrow the paper book to take note of the names of the nurses telling the stories in order to honour them.
As an audio book I did find it took quite a while to adapt to the narration style in order to listen properly and had to register to the first half dozen chapters.
A really interesting of times past until more recent times of doing an incredibly hard job in some really challenging conditions.
I have great respect for anyone who takes on nursing as a work choice/life commitment as I know it is a job I could never do with ease.
All in all, interesting and challenging and important stories that need to be told and remembered with respect
An interesting and at times challenging collection of stories. Like the other collection of outback stories I have read by the same author I find some of the expressed attitudes to other peoples, particularly the Aboriginal peoples they lived amongst and worked amongst, often in an authoritarian role, while at the same time I respect their lived, first hand experience at that time and in that place. Challenging at times.
I did find the stories from about Track 20 onward to be much more respectful and up lifting and will borrow the paper book to take note of the names of the nurses telling the stories in order to honour them.
As an audio book I did find it took quite a while to adapt to the narration style in order to listen properly and had to register to the first half dozen chapters.
A really interesting of times past until more recent times of doing an incredibly hard job in some really challenging conditions.
I have great respect for anyone who takes on nursing as a work choice/life commitment as I know it is a job I could never do with ease.
All in all, interesting and challenging and important stories that need to be told and remembered with respect
June 14, 2018
Lots of real stories that tell it how it is. Book was a bit long in the end. Despite unique people's tales it did feel repetitive after a while.
April 19, 2018
A fantastic book. These stories of nursing in the outback are amazing, and although sometimes heartbreaking, always interesting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews