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The Waddi Tree
Two branches of the McAllister family lead very different lives on cattle stations in Central Australia. Rob, a stickler for correctness, manages a wealthy, company-owned property, while his easygoing brother Sandy struggles to support his wife and son on an impoverished leasehold. When tragedy throws the families together, before ultimately driving them even further apart, it's Sandy's young son Jim who suffers most. Left to rebuild his shattered world, he depends on the larger-than-life station characters and the comfort of horses.
This is tough country, where personal heartache is kept in perspective by drought, fire and isolation. The times are just as unforgiving, and as the years pass, Jim discovers that he must pay for his father's mistakes as well as his own. Yet this harshly beautiful land is full of promise, a source of strength to Jim on his road from innocence to independence.
This is tough country, where personal heartache is kept in perspective by drought, fire and isolation. The times are just as unforgiving, and as the years pass, Jim discovers that he must pay for his father's mistakes as well as his own. Yet this harshly beautiful land is full of promise, a source of strength to Jim on his road from innocence to independence.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Kerry McGinnis
22 books78 followersKerry McGinnis was born in Adelaide and, at the age of twelve, took up a life of droving with her father and three siblings. The family travelled extensively across the Northern Territory and Queensland before settling on a station in the Gulf Country. Kerry has worked as a shepherd, droving hand, gardener, stock-camp and station cook, eventually running a property at Bowthorn, near Mount Isa. She is the author of two volumes of memoir and now lives in Bundaberg.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 3, 2014
Three and a half stars. I read and loved Mallee Sky which is why I picked up another book by Kerry McGinnis. I enjoyed this story of Jim McAllister, even though it is a coming of age story which is not my favourite genre. Jim is left to rue the changes that take place in his life after tragedy strikes. He is caught between love and admiration for his father Sandy and dislike for his uncle Rob who is about as different from his brother as he can be. I felt for Jim and could associate with loss. The characters are interesting but the main character in this novel is really the outback of Central Australia. It portrays a harsh land and a harsh life trying to exist on this land.
Over time Jim’s feelings about his family members change. This book has a lot to say about attitudes held by people regarding others. While I enjoyed this novel and its amazing pictures of the land and the people in it, I wouldn’t put it in the same category as Mallee Sky, which I loved. Perhaps if I had read this book first it would have worked better. That said this is certainly still worth reading for the story of events and attitudes that shape a person as well as the incredible picture of our land.
Over time Jim’s feelings about his family members change. This book has a lot to say about attitudes held by people regarding others. While I enjoyed this novel and its amazing pictures of the land and the people in it, I wouldn’t put it in the same category as Mallee Sky, which I loved. Perhaps if I had read this book first it would have worked better. That said this is certainly still worth reading for the story of events and attitudes that shape a person as well as the incredible picture of our land.
October 25, 2021
A 3 1/2 star rating really
Enjoyable, family saga. Aussie outback adventures.
Enjoyable. Great word pictures really bring the landscapes to life in the readers mind.
Such a harsh environment and harsh , hard lives.
It was tough reading the way the Aboriginal people were treated - I kept reminding myself of the time frame that the story is based around -pre referendum- at a time when the Aboriginal peoples were considered in the same as fauna and were not citizens in their own land.
I did notice a gradual changing of ideas as the story progressed towards the last section where racial issues became central.
Enjoyable, family saga. Aussie outback adventures.
Enjoyable. Great word pictures really bring the landscapes to life in the readers mind.
Such a harsh environment and harsh , hard lives.
It was tough reading the way the Aboriginal people were treated - I kept reminding myself of the time frame that the story is based around -pre referendum- at a time when the Aboriginal peoples were considered in the same as fauna and were not citizens in their own land.
I did notice a gradual changing of ideas as the story progressed towards the last section where racial issues became central.
March 9, 2016
What’s A Jackeroo?
I purchased The Waddi Tree by Kerry McGinnis in the Alice Springs Airport while awaiting a flight to Sydney, Australia. Alice Springs is a town of about 25,000 in central Australia situated in the Northern Territory; the Simpson Desert is to the southeast. My husband and I had gone to Ayers Rock (Uluru) for a few days prior to view the mythological sandstone rock at sunrise and sunset. Ayers Rock is approximately 280 miles southwest of Alice Springs and we’d ridden a bus for seven hours on the Lasseter and Stuart Highways to get here.
Travelling awards us insight but there is insufficient time when one is visiting a place to fully appreciate its uniqueness and I always hunt for books that can teach me more. Kerry McGinnis is Australian born and she and her family owned a cattle station in central Australia. As such, I believed The Waddi Tree a worthwhile read.
The story commences in 1957. For the past decade, Sandy McAllister has run the struggling Arcadia Cattle Station; a homemade three-room house and shed on leasehold property in central Australia. His younger brother, Rob, manages Kharko Station; a prosperous operation with a homestead and complex of buildings likened to a town. Sandy, a fifty-year-old army vet, is hard-working, devoted to his vibrant wife, a former nurse, Jenny and adventuresome with their child, a ten-year-old named Jim. By comparison, Rob is regimented and taciturn. His wife, Mary, was once full of laughter; the drowning of their son, Todd, fifteen years ago, however, has rendered her pale and subdued. Their nine-year old daughter, Rosemary is rebellious whereas Oliver, her fourteen-year-old sibling, has resigned to the fact he must follow his father’s footsteps. Though only forty miles separates the stations, the brother’s conflicting personalities has limited and strained their contact; nevertheless, Sandy emphasizes to Jim, Rob is his only uncle.
McGinnis vividly depicts daily life on the isolated stations by referencing radio communications, Jim’s daily half-hour school lessons with an unseen teacher in Alice Springs through the School of the Air program and The Flying Doctor’s visit with a nurse to Kharko Station for monthly clinics. Jim works to help his parents sustain Arcadia. His chores include herding goats but he romps with his aboriginal buddy, Nipper. He and his mother enjoy Sandy’s accordion playing but after her accidental death, his father unravels, this chapter closes and he is sent to live with Rob’s family.
Sandy ultimately abandons Arcadia Station, becomes an itinerant worker, begins a slow descent into alcoholism and contravenes social mores by partnering with an Aboriginal woman and fathering a child named Eddy. He evolves into an object of derision and becomes estranged from Jim. In Chapter Five when Sandy is about to leave Jim with a promise to return in a year, he says, ‘You’ll understand when you’re older son.’ The quote underscores Jim’s odyssey that represents the thread of the book.
The story explores Jim’s struggle to comprehend all that has happened as he transitions from boy to man. He fights to escape the shadow of his father, cope with the grief of his mother’s loss and earn worth based on his own merits rather than accepting anything subscribed to him for being Rob’s nephew. As he tries to find his place at Kharko Station, a microcosm for the world, he assumes more responsibility and his interactions with characters and responses to events illustrate his attempts to reconcile issues of loss, anger, hurt and shame. Through his experiences, he comes to understand “family” has more than a single definition and love, many dynamics. In particular, Jim’s interaction with the spirited Rosemary and observation of Oliver’s defeatist attitude lead him to contemplate his own options.
Of note are his relationships with secondary characters, especially the cook, Pommy John and racehorse jockey, Barney O’Dowd. Through conversations and incidents, the reader is informed of the immensity of cattle stations in central Australia. There are numerous hands and property allocated covers vast tracts of land. Branding cattle is an onerous chore and ensuring herds have steady access to water demands a relentless cycle of moving the animals. In addition, these characters serve as vehicles to reveal attitudes towards black workers, white-black coupling and half-caste children. They also represent forums within which Jim debates matters of conscience, tests new skills and exhibits growing competence on the station.
The blistering-hot and furnace-dry desert environment of central Australia is a metaphor for the bleakness Jim confronts as he passes through adolescence. McGinnis’ descriptive passages of the ochre mountains, red sand dunes, spiky spinifex ridges and pale trunked gum trees are superb and message us of the beauty that exists within this stark land. Her references to drought and the construction of bores to tap groundwater from shallow aquifers for the cattle mirror the barrenness of Jim’s relationship with his father plus hint at the hope of salvation. The inclusion of wildlife such as emus, euros, brumby feral horses and the second largest lizard in the world, a perenti, highlight Australia’s uniqueness. Animals also interject humour and frame valuable lessons: Jake, Jim’s quirky bay pony; Peddler, a brown Arcadia Station packhorse; and Pearlshell, the red bay present from Rob for his sixteenth birthday.
The novel was poignant but McGinniss’ exploration of so many emotional issues caused some to be left thin and, as a result, I felt residual incompletion at the end. Jim’s visiting his father’s grave and his grasp of the anguish he’d suffered over his mother’s death, however, was gratifying. His learning he’d hung on to Arcadia Station, willed it to him and realization he’d never truly been abandoned was also gratifying.
McGinnis is deft with words as exemplified by her phrasing of this coming-of-age moment in Chapter Sixteen. ‘When she (his mother, Jenny) died it was as if a fire had gone out in Sandy. Jim could still recall the light in his father’s eyes as they rested on Jenny, and suddenly he understood what a burden life must have become for him once she was gone.’ Jim’s commitment to restore Arcadia Station and make it home brought full circle to the novel. I did regard his decision to assume care of his half-brother, Eddy and assumption a teacher, Ruth Petlow, with whom he’d developed a minimal relationship rather simplistic and, perhaps, a rushed attempt by McGinniss to conclude the book.
Titles bear symbolism and a waddi tree is mentioned in Chapter One. It is a desert acacia tree Sandy insisted never be cut that shaded the eastern side of the veranda fronting their home. When Jim returns to Arcadia Station in the final chapter, its condition is dilapidated but the tree has survived and, hence, harbingers a positive future.
In conclusion, I’d like to tribute McGinnis’ skilful use of vocabulary in authenticating Australia and cite examples: swag, a term for pack; strapper, someone who cares for horses and tuckerbox, a lunch pail. On a final note, The Waddi Tree was definitely a worthwhile read. It enhanced my understanding of the Northern Territory and will hold a valuable place in my travel library.
As to a jackeroo, it is a cattle station employee being trained for management; a position for which Jim is qualified when he decides to assume ownership of Arcadia Station.
Marianne Perry
Author of The Inheritance
Writing inspired by genealogical research to solve family mysteries.
http://www.marianneperry.ca
April 7, 2015
I purchased The Waddi Tree by Kerry McGinnis in the Alice Springs Airport while awaiting a flight to Sydney, Australia. Alice Springs is a town of about 25,000 in central Australia situated in the Northern Territory; the Simpson Desert is to the southeast. My husband and I had gone to Ayers Rock (Uluru) for a few days prior to view the mythological sandstone rock at sunrise and sunset. Ayers Rock is approximately 280 miles southwest of Alice Springs and we’d ridden a bus for seven hours on the Lasseter and Stuart Highways to get here.
Travelling awards us insight but there is insufficient time when one is visiting a place to fully appreciate its uniqueness and I always hunt for books that can teach me more. Kerry McGinnis is Australian born and she and her family owned a cattle station in central Australia. As such, I believed The Waddi Tree a worthwhile read.
The story commences in 1957. For the past decade, Sandy McAllister has run the struggling Arcadia Cattle Station; a homemade three-room house and shed on leasehold property in central Australia. His younger brother, Rob, manages Kharko Station; a prosperous operation with a homestead and complex of buildings likened to a town. Sandy, a fifty-year-old army vet, is hard-working, devoted to his vibrant wife, a former nurse, Jenny and adventuresome with their child, a ten-year-old named Jim. By comparison, Rob is regimented and taciturn. His wife, Mary, was once full of laughter; the drowning of their son, Todd, fifteen years ago, however, has rendered her pale and subdued. Their nine-year old daughter, Rosemary is rebellious whereas Oliver, her fourteen-year-old sibling, has resigned to the fact he must follow his father’s footsteps. Though only forty miles separates the stations, the brother’s conflicting personalities has limited and strained their contact; nevertheless, Sandy emphasizes to Jim, Rob is his only uncle.
McGinnis vividly depicts daily life on the isolated stations by referencing radio communications, Jim’s daily half-hour school lessons with an unseen teacher in Alice Springs through the School of the Air program and The Flying Doctor’s visit with a nurse to Kharko Station for monthly clinics. Jim works to help his parents sustain Arcadia. His chores include herding goats but he romps with his aboriginal buddy, Nipper. He and his mother enjoy Sandy’s accordion playing but after her accidental death, his father unravels, this chapter closes and he is sent to live with Rob’s family.
Sandy ultimately abandons Arcadia Station, becomes an itinerant worker, begins a slow descent into alcoholism and contravenes social mores by partnering with an Aboriginal woman and fathering a child named Eddy. He evolves into an object of derision and becomes estranged from Jim. In Chapter Five when Sandy is about to leave Jim with a promise to return in a year, he says, ‘You’ll understand when you’re older son.’ The quote underscores Jim’s odyssey that represents the thread of the book.
The story explores Jim’s struggle to comprehend all that has happened as he transitions from boy to man. He fights to escape the shadow of his father, cope with the grief of his mother’s loss and earn worth based on his own merits rather than accepting anything subscribed to him for being Rob’s nephew. As he tries to find his place at Kharko Station, a microcosm for the world, he assumes more responsibility and his interactions with characters and responses to events illustrate his attempts to reconcile issues of loss, anger, hurt and shame. Through his experiences, he comes to understand “family” has more than a single definition and love, many dynamics. In particular, Jim’s interaction with the spirited Rosemary and observation of Oliver’s defeatist attitude lead him to contemplate his own options.
Of note are his relationships with secondary characters, especially the cook, Pommy John and racehorse jockey, Barney O’Dowd. Through conversations and incidents, the reader is informed of the immensity of cattle stations in central Australia. There are numerous hands and property allocated covers vast tracts of land. Branding cattle is an onerous chore and ensuring herds have steady access to water demands a relentless cycle of moving the animals. In addition, these characters serve as vehicles to reveal attitudes towards black workers, white-black coupling and half-caste children. They also represent forums within which Jim debates matters of conscience, tests new skills and exhibits growing competence on the station.
The blistering-hot and furnace-dry desert environment of central Australia is a metaphor for the bleakness Jim confronts as he passes through adolescence. McGinnis’ descriptive passages of the ochre mountains, red sand dunes, spiky spinifex ridges and pale trunked gum trees are superb and message us of the beauty that exists within this stark land. Her references to drought and the construction of bores to tap groundwater from shallow aquifers for the cattle mirror the barrenness of Jim’s relationship with his father plus hint at the hope of salvation. The inclusion of wildlife such as emus, euros, brumby feral horses and the second largest lizard in the world, a perenti, highlight Australia’s uniqueness. Animals also interject humour and frame valuable lessons: Jake, Jim’s quirky bay pony; Peddler, a brown Arcadia Station packhorse; and Pearlshell, the red bay present from Rob for his sixteenth birthday.
The novel was poignant but McGinniss’ exploration of so many emotional issues caused some to be left thin and, as a result, I felt residual incompletion at the end. Jim’s visiting his father’s grave and his grasp of the anguish he’d suffered over his mother’s death, however, was gratifying. His learning he’d hung on to Arcadia Station, willed it to him and realization he’d never truly been abandoned was also gratifying.
McGinnis is deft with words as exemplified by her phrasing of this coming-of-age moment in Chapter Sixteen. ‘When she (his mother, Jenny) died it was as if a fire had gone out in Sandy. Jim could still recall the light in his father’s eyes as they rested on Jenny, and suddenly he understood what a burden life must have become for him once she was gone.’ Jim’s commitment to restore Arcadia Station and make it home brought full circle to the novel. I did regard his decision to assume care of his half-brother, Eddy and assumption a teacher, Ruth Petlow, with whom he’d developed a minimal relationship rather simplistic and, perhaps, a rushed attempt by McGinniss to conclude the book.
Titles bear symbolism and a waddi tree is mentioned in Chapter One. It is a desert acacia tree Sandy insisted never be cut that shaded the eastern side of the veranda fronting their home. When Jim returns to Arcadia Station in the final chapter, its condition is dilapidated but the tree has survived and, hence, harbingers a positive future.
In conclusion, I’d like to tribute McGinnis’ skilful use of vocabulary in authenticating Australia and cite examples: swag, a term for pack; strapper, someone who cares for horses and tuckerbox, a lunch pail. On a final note, The Waddi Tree was definitely a worthwhile read. It enhanced my understanding of the Northern Territory and will hold a valuable place in my travel library.
As to a jackeroo, it is a cattle station employee being trained for management; a position for which Jim is qualified when he decides to assume ownership of Arcadia Station.
Marianne Perry
Author of The Inheritance
Writing inspired by genealogical research to solve family mysteries.
http://www.marianneperry.ca
April 7, 2015
June 25, 2018
Bothers Rob and Sandy both run cattle stations in Central Australia. Rob manages a company-owned station and Sandy has his own freehold property with which he struggles. Both have children and when disaster strikes Sandy's son Jim is sent to live on the 'big' station with his aunt, uncle and cousins. He works his way through the different jobs on the station and is moved to other cattle stations where he learns the ropes from different characters on each of the stations. While he's bettering himself his father is doing just the opposite.
This is definitely an Aussie bush story and written so it's hard to put down.
This is definitely an Aussie bush story and written so it's hard to put down.
June 8, 2017
Australian author, audiobook.
February 16, 2020
Shows a true love and appreciation of the tough realities of life in the outback, the connection with the land, and the attitudes and prejudice of these pioneer graziers.
July 9, 2020
I loved this coming of age story. Thank you to Humphrey Bower for making this so accessible.
October 26, 2021
really enjoyed this one - beautifully descriptive of Australia and the outback
June 21, 2022
At times I thought I was actually in this hard country. Kerry McGinnis description of the land is so real.
November 8, 2023
I really enjoyed this story, particularly the reading by Humphrey Bower.
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May 26, 2009The Wadi Tree, by Kerry McGinnis, narrated by Humphrey Bowers, produced by Bolinda Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
This was one of those long and wonderful novels. It took place in the harsh and barren country of cattle stations in Australia. At the beginning of the book, we had little Jim, and his parents. He was living an ideal child’s life. Then a terrible tragedy occurred, his mother was killed in a car accident, and this changed his life forever. His father couldn’t cope at all with the death of his wife, so he sent Jim to live with his brother’s family and he took off. This is the story of Jim’s remaining boyhood, (no longer can he call it childhood), and his life as he worked the cattle station that his uncle ran, and then other stations owned by the same company. The book sees him through many life changes. A wonderful novel.
This was one of those long and wonderful novels. It took place in the harsh and barren country of cattle stations in Australia. At the beginning of the book, we had little Jim, and his parents. He was living an ideal child’s life. Then a terrible tragedy occurred, his mother was killed in a car accident, and this changed his life forever. His father couldn’t cope at all with the death of his wife, so he sent Jim to live with his brother’s family and he took off. This is the story of Jim’s remaining boyhood, (no longer can he call it childhood), and his life as he worked the cattle station that his uncle ran, and then other stations owned by the same company. The book sees him through many life changes. A wonderful novel.
January 6, 2011
Up until age 10 Jim McAllister had an ideal life on his parent's property near Alice Springs "Arcadia" - his father Sandy was hardworking and easygoing and his mother gentle and caring. When tragedy strikes he was sent to live with his father's brother Rob, who was as different from Sandy as he could be. Rob manages a company owned property nearby.
He does manage to settle in there with his uncle and his family and the many characters who live on the station. He learns the trade as a jackaroo and when he is old enough he moves off to persure his own career, in a different direction that he had though he would go when he younger.
There were times in this book that brought tears to my eyes, udually I don't like to read sad stories but this one was worth it.
He does manage to settle in there with his uncle and his family and the many characters who live on the station. He learns the trade as a jackaroo and when he is old enough he moves off to persure his own career, in a different direction that he had though he would go when he younger.
There were times in this book that brought tears to my eyes, udually I don't like to read sad stories but this one was worth it.
August 24, 2015
Kerry has once again shown why she is one of my absolute favourite Australian authors. I first read her book Mallee Sky and loved it, and The Waddi Tree is just as spectacular. The characters and landscape are beautifully crafted, and Kerry forms stark and clear pictures in your mind as you read. I couldn't put it down, even though I didn't want it to end. Her affinity and genuine love of the Australian outback is stamped on every page. I went through a range of emotions and her storyline was original and heartfelt. I can't wait to pick up my next Kerry McGinnis book!
July 4, 2012
I read this book for the ABC Radio Bookclub (our July book) and also for Janeese's Murri bookclub. It's a strong family saga set in the outback. The waddi tree was really symbolic as a place of family, of home. There's a dreaming story of two boys, and I found that reflected throughout the book as we first have the brother characters (Sandy and Rob) then Jim and his mate Nipper, then Jim and his cousin Oliver and then Jim and his halfbrother Eddy.
A strong ending
A strong ending
December 21, 2014
Loved this story line and did not want to put it down, but you have to sleep sometime! After reading Kerry's life experiences in her first two books, I can see where she has used her own/family experiences in the novels. What better research can an Author have, than to have lived them herself. Makes me want to travel the outback even more and try to see it through different eyes.
June 27, 2010
A slow story in a way but at the same time, extraordinary characters and a beautiful tribute to life in the Outback.
December 28, 2010
I enjoyed this book - I would like to read her memoirs now. I like the fact that she just told a simple but real story. However I felt the ending could have been more fleshed out.
July 3, 2013
This is a lovely book read by the incomparable Humphrey Bower. I wanted to give it 5 stars until the end which just seemed too abrupt.
June 28, 2014
Recommended by Alicia
Read this book in Townsville
Read this book in Townsville
October 2, 2014
this was a good read. i enjoyed the character development and the descriptions of our beautiful country
October 23, 2015
This was well written and very enjoyable. I will definitely be reading more by this author. A good story line and believable.
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January 26, 2016Another great Australian Bush story. Audiobook.
Read
November 20, 2016excellent but a tear jerker
February 21, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyable. A story of growth and a love story.
October 7, 2015
An easy read outback story.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews