The Orphan Swaggy is a true life story about Outback Queensland in the 1930s. It will hold its own in the company of A.B. Facey's A Fortunate Life.

Jim was nine years old when his father died in a coal mining accident, leaving Jim's mother and three young children. To help make ends meet, Jim caught and stied pigs for slaughter, looked after the family's goat herd, worked in the school holidays as a cowboy and was given a job with the drovers on the black soil plain. He also worked underground with the horses at Blair Athol Coal Mine. Jim's mother passed away when he was fourteen and the house was sold to pay for her funeral. Jim rolled his swag and left Blair Athol in search of work in the Outback.