When the elderly recluse Ebenezer Gower died he left his run down Sherbert Valley farm in north Queensland and all his worldly wealth to the Parish of the Upper Sherbert, his idea being that a small agricultural high school be established there for the boys of the area. The most valuable part of the bequest was a parcel of coarse gold concentrate, gold that looked as if it had come from the Sherbert Valley. But the Sherbert Valley alluvials had been worked out in the eighteen nineties ... and this was reef gold.
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A lighthearted look at life and other extracurricular activities at a small bush high school in north Queensland during the mid nineteen-fifties. Forget Adrian Mole and the Boy Wizard. Forget Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. This is a true-blue Aussie kid describing real Aussie adventures ... and only exaggerating slightly.
But this is no children's book. This is a good honest Aussie yarn for anyone from eleven to eleventy. I mean check out the solid gold reviews.
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"Ay. She'sa not too bad, I reckon." (Pietro Spinelli, Anakie Gemfields, Qld.)

"This towering um...'work', is erm..." (Ron Bruise, The Birdsville Times Literary Supplement.)

"Gracious luvvey, it cheered me up no end it did." (Marge Trundle, rooms cleaned and general domestic duties. No Sundays.)