Ben Dixon and The Long Paddock (ePub)

Cattleman and journalist Ben Dixon decides to head West to meet some old friends and to distribute some of his and his wife Milly's considerable wealth to landholders who are doing it tough. Milly has been behaving badly, thinking she's pregnant although her doctor warns her that at 49 it's a symptom of her time of life. When he proves to be correct, Milly, now out of control, turns on Ben. He'd promised her a 25th anniversary reavowal ceremony in Melbourne but, on departure from their property at Monaldo in Queensland, tells her to call it off. He enjoys his beloved West and finds plenty of people and small towns to help with cash grants along the way, and enjoys meeting people he wrote about in an award-winning newspaper series, a few years before. But he's being chased by people who've heard of the grants and want hand-outs. Tiring of the chase, Ben joins a cattle drive along the Long Paddock, a government stock route used for moving cattle and sheep around the West. In the peace of the drive Ben begins to think of Milly and their life together. He realises that her behaviour was because of her state of mind and decides to try to have the ceremony reinstated. Back home Milly understand how and why she's behaved so badly and, with 15-year-old daughter Mim sets out to try to find Ben, get him to love her again, and persuade him to the ceremony. They are greeted affectionately by Ben's friends as they track them through the country and people help them in their search for him. They are threatened at times but protect themselves with knife and gun, developing a reputation in the West, which Milly hopes Ben never hears of. They are led to the hopping off point for the cattle drive so Milly drives to the first rest stop on the drive and awaits Ben. The drive has problems so they send Mim home and to Melbourne, Ben takes over as Boss Drover and Milly as cookie, the drover's cook. She has to leave the drive early to head for Melbourne and it's going to be a close thing for Ben. He encounters all sort of problems and despairs that his attempts to be with Milly might fail...