Daughter of the Plateau

What does it mean to have no place to call home, and no family to turn to? 
 
Manna, named for the regal white gums and yellow-tailed black cockatoos of the Central Highlands of Tasmania, was a wild, strong, fiercely independent child.
 
But Manna’s life was torn apart, first by her mother’s abandonment, then by her father’s coldness. Craving connection, yet wounded by her past, Manna pushes away the last of the people she cares about. 
 
Wild places can heal but are they enough? A whale stranding and an encounter with a silver-haired woman force Manna to reckon with the elemental forces within and around her. 
 
Grieving and alone, she must tear open old wounds and confront the people she once loved the most, if she is to reclaim her identity as a daughter of the Plateau.

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Spinifex Baby

When Karen and her partner Al set forth from the cold mountains of Tasmania to the 45-plus degree heat of central Australia to transform a cattle station into a conservation reserve, they were ready to embrace the beauty of the land and throw themselves into the task of protecting native plants and animals. They thought they had all the skills necessary to beat the heat, the dust and their isolation from society.

However, when Karen became unexpectedly pregnant, their lives were turned upside down. Suddenly their biggest danger was not their exposure to the harsh elements but to the deepest fears that resided within themselves…

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Authors Bio

Karen’s first book, a memoir called Spinifex Baby, won the National 2014 Finch Memoir Prize.  She now lives on the side of kunanyi (Mt Wellington) in Tasmania, not too far from the Central Plateau where this story begins. The North-West Bay River runs past her property and where the river meets the sea she works as a storytelling teacher at the local Primary School.

For a number of years, Karen and her family were  Reserve Managers on isolated conservation reserves both in the Simpson Desert and outside of Broken Hill. They worked hard to repair and support the country and lived deeply entwined and connected to the landscape.

Whenever possible, Karen will be found writing, bushwalking or swimming in the beautiful Tasmanian wilderness.