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  • Published: 17 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143786429
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $22.99

Down the Dirt Roads




A powerful and moving memoir about healing, healthy food and hope by Australia's leading rural writer and environmental entrepreneur.

‘For me, being in a paddock means anything is possible . . .’

Country girl and bestselling novelist Rachael Treasure had worked hard to build a long-dreamed-of lifestyle on her own patch of dirt in Tasmania’s rugged and beautiful wilderness. But through the breakdown of her marriage, Rachael lost her family farm and, in her words, lost her way in life.

Discovering an all-new compass to live by, she took her two kids and her dogs and left the beaten path. Intensive farming, men on the land and women in the home – everywhere Rachael looked she saw ongoing harm to the soil and the foodchain. By going down the dirt roads and getting back to grassroots, she discovered another set of stories about country life in Australia, and a different way to live on the land. From her rebel granny to pioneering farmers and passionate animal handlers, Rachael became inspired by fresh ways to do things.

Down the Dirt Roads starts as a heartfelt and moving insight into the life of a single mother displaced from her home, and becomes a groundbreaking and powerful book about healing, health and hope. Nourishing and sustaining, it presents a practical and positive vision of what life on our land could become.

  • Published: 17 July 2017
  • ISBN: 9780143786429
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Rachael Treasure

Rachael Treasure lives in Southern Tasmania with her two teenage children and husband Daniel. Together they are establishing the educational Ripple Farm Landscape Healing Hub to share regenerative agricultural principles and Natural Sequence Farming techniques. Rachael’s first novel, Jillaroo, blazed a trail in the Australian publishing industry for other rural women writers and is now considered an iconic work of contemporary fiction.
Rachael began her working life as a jillaroo before studying at Orange Agricultural College (now University of Sydney), and received a BA of Communications at Charles Sturt University. She has worked as a journalist on many publications in Australia’s rural print sector and for ABC rural radio.

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The sheila from Snowy River

Rachael Treasure explores gender bias in Australia’s country stories.

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Hidden treasure

The Down the Dirt Roads author expresses gratitude and awe for our world.