LIFE ON THE LAND

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS TAKE US BACK TO OUR RURAL ROOTS IN RACHAEL TREASURE’S LATEST BOOK

Inspiration has a way of finding you in the strangest of places, at the most peculiar times. Rachael Treasure’s new book

White Horses began with a brainwave in the middle of the night.

“I scrawled my notes in winter in Tasmania, 2014, I’ve written ‘3.15am’,” Rachael says. “It is 3.15am when the creative clouds part and your mind is in a different brainwave state.”

Rachael, a former journalist, jillaroo, farmer and mother living in rural Tasmania, takes advantage of any moment of clarity she can get.

“My experience is if you can alter your mind state, when your brainwaves slow down and you can tap into that stillness in your mind, there is a well of inspiration. The conflict is always the necessity to multi-task and think of a thousand things, from the toilet paper to the soap,” she says.

“You’re trying to create these works of fiction that are aimed at touching people to their core, and opening them up to emancipation, then you’ve got to think of the shopping list. Life is pretty messy, it’s about learning to embrace that creatively.”

White Horses tells the story of Drift, a young woman raised by her father in Western Australia after the disappearance of her mother, Harmony, as a child. She works alongside her dad, nicknamed Split, as a cattle drover and is nurtured by family friends and wise women, Wilma and Charlie.

Split, still reeling from the loss of his partner, is also at a loss as to the ethics of modern agriculture putting economy before ecology. He self-medicates with alcohol.

After a horrific sexual assault, Drift meets a young stockman who introduces her to a thriving property called The Planet, run by

American woman Sophia. When the young stockman disappears, Drift must draw upon the well of wisdom taught to her by Wilma, Charlie and Sophia to overcome her trauma and forge her own path in the world.

Rachael says her novel reflects a number of society’s biggest issues — women and men struggling with patriarchy, the impact of destructive agricultural systems on the planet, and the loss of motherly wisdom.

“I really wanted to parallel the treatment of women with the treatment of Mother Earth,” Rachael says.

“I think my character of Drift Wood, she’s

“YOU’RE TRYING TO CREATE THESE WORKS OF FICTION THAT ARE AIMED AT TOUCHING PEOPLE TO THEIR CORE ... THEN YOU’VE GOT TO THINK OF THE SHOPPING LIST.”

lost her mother at sea, she’s motherless. Her character represents that as women we’re motherless in the sense the ancient wisdom we would pass on to our daughters has been lost in modern, industrialised society.

“Drift represents that motherlessness inside us all. I wanted her to be struggling with a male who was struggling with an aggressive world. So her dad, nicknamed Split, masked his pain with alcohol, which is something I experienced growing up.

“On top of that I’d been researching regenerative agriculture for over a decade now. I wanted to weave in my absolute calling in life, which is to inspire others to take on regenerative farming practices. That’s where the character of Sophia and the property of The Planet is involved.

“They’re broad, big notions to inspire a novel, but that’s essentially where it came from. Then I had to find a cracking, entertaining story to hang that off.”

The strong female characters anchoring the story aren’t based on any women in Rachael’s life, rather a collection of role models she holds dear to her heart.

“I was very lucky to have a grandmother who was ahead of her time. She made sure we learned Dreamtime aboriginal stories and lessons,” Rachael says.

“She was a farmer as well, she was also a writer. She could shoot, she could trap rabbits, she could row a dinghy out and catch flatheads. I was taught this very self sufficient way. My mum’s sister, Susie, I would go up to her dairy farm in the holidays, it was a vertically stacked enterprise, which is the healthiest way of farming. Sadly we’ve turned our back on the domestic side of things, but when you look at farm animals, it’s the mothers that pass on the nutritional wisdom. It’s the same in humans.”

Although born and bred in Tasmania, Rachael set her book in Western Australia to portray the isolation Drift faces in an immense landscape.

“I wanted my character to have that landsea connection and to be a modern-day girl who hadn’t been indoctrinated and had her brain rewired by technology, so hence Western Australia,” she says.

“I wanted my readers to feel that Drift really is isolated in every sense of the word. It’s not until she finds that power within that she realises she’s never alone.”