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Outback Heart

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Outback Heart

By: Joanne van Os
Narrated by: Joanne van Os
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About this listen

Joanne van Os was just 22 when she met Rod Ansell. At 23 Rod was already a legend in Australia and around the world, having survived alone for two months without supplies in one of the harshest and most remote parts of northern Australia.

To Joanne, Rod was a genuine hero who could do anything, could make anything out of nothing, told the funniest yarns, had a philosophy on everything. She married him, and they had two beautiful sons who idolised their father. Together they lived the tough life of outback bull catchers and cattle musterers.

But as time went on Joanne came to realize that Rod was both a complicated and deeply troubled man. For the sake of her sons she never gave up on Rod, even after their divorce, but just how far he'd gone only became apparent when his life ended in tragedy: out of his mind on drugs, Rod became involved in a shootout in which a young police office was killed. 'How does someone, whose extraordinary story of survival in the wild inspired so many Australians, become a psychotic, drug-crazed gunman?' Joanne asks.

Outback Heart captures the Territory life vividly: the dust, the heat, the struggle and the larger-than-life characters. But it's also a deeply moving and powerful story of a love affair and a marriage, and the pain when it all falls apart. It's the story of Rod Ansell, but even more it is Joanne's story, of how a young, naive woman grows up the hard way, and has the most exhilarating and the most heartbreaking times doing it.

©2005 Joanne van Os. (P)2006 Bolinda Publishing Entertainment & Celebrities Celebrity
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Editor reviews

The story of Rod Ansell, the "real-life Crocodile Dundee", is one of adventure, romance, and tragedy. Here, Joanne van Os recalls her life with this mercurial man - more than a testosterone-fueled cattle wrangler, Rod was thoughtful, articulate, and an engaging storyteller. The two met amid the media frenzy that followed Rod’s two-month plight of survival in the Outback, during which time Ansell battled crocodiles and ate feral cattle. The couple built a life together, raising two sons amid the heat and dust of the Outback, but their marriage dissolved as Rod’s deep-seated troubles became increasingly apparent. Joanne’s performance betrays her insistence that she "never gave up" on Rod. Recounting their time together, Joanne’s dust-tinged voice reveals feelings of joy, excitement, regret, frustration, and loving devotion.

Critic reviews

"Beautifully written, with a flow that takes hold and never leâ¿¿s go...mesmerizing. One of the biographies of the year." ( Australian Women's Weekly)

What listeners say about Outback Heart

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Profile Image for Sandor

Lots of cow punching in the Australian outback

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would have liked more focus on the outback itself, less on catching, herding and killing cows etc.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I have to admit I just got bored with this book and didn't finish it.

What does Joanne Van Os bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I believe she read her own words, which is a good way to bring a book to life.

Was Outback Heart worth the listening time?

Not for me sorry, too many cows not enough about life in the outback ( without cows).

Any additional comments?

I was hopeing for a book about travelling in the outback, with descriptions of wildlife but got how to rope ,catch and kill cows over and over again, which wasn't really what I was expecting, although that may be the experience Ms Van Os had its not what I was expecting.

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