Robert Ennever | Bendemere Books

Destiny's Daughter

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Published on Wednesday, 28 February 2018 14:18

Having had the good fortune to spend ten years of my life as a farmer and grazier in the magnificent Cowra district of New South Wales’ Central West, I have seen and felt firsthand the heartbreaking failures and exhilarating successes which are part and parcel of ‘Life on the Land’.  

What has made a lasting impression on me is the fortitude and courage of the men and women who devote their lives to the development and maintenance of the wonderful properties of this region; their resilience and refusal to ‘give up’ has opened my eyes to what has made such people the backbone of Australian agriculture and, for many years, its economy.

At a time when many children born and raised in our major cities believe milk comes in cartons and eggs from the supermarket, I believe it is important for a focus to be placed on those who produce not only much of our country’s wealth, but also our food and sustenance; for city folk to realize there exists a world beyond the soaring skyscrapers and shadowed streets they inhabit, that love, hate, despair and ecstasy are common to all people, that a more simple life can give satisfaction, that wealth can not only be measured in terms of money, and that sophisticated, superficial gloss and glitter do not necessarily mask unhappiness, nor provide a life with purpose.

I have set my novel, ‘Destiny's Daughter…’, against this background of hardship, endurance, determination and achievement, in the hope that my story might resonate with those who live in rural areas, and introduce those who do not to some aspects of life they may have never experienced.

I dedicate this work to those who have suffered as a result of the thoughtless actions of others, and bad decisions born of self interest, ignorance, malice or greed; above all I dedicate it to those who have endured the rigours and hardships of ‘life in the bush’ and overcome these trials. I dedicate it to those who have created a society where mateship is still esteemed and a man’s word is his bond, where a handshake is as binding as a legal document, where a ‘hard day’s work’ is regarded with satisfaction and not as an imposition.

I dedicate it to all of you who hold dear those values which make Australia great. 

 

Robert Ennever

February, 2018