{"product_id":"book-1j7p","title":"Never Just a Wife","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever Just a Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLife with a Drover on the Australian Long Paddock\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eInspired by true events\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt seventeen, Bev walked away from a planned wedding in a small Victorian town and stepped onto the stock routes with a drover named Laurie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy sunrise she was gone - leaving behind family expectations and the life everyone assumed she would live.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAhead of her lay the long paddock.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBefore road trains and fenced paddocks changed the Australian bush forever, sheep and cattle moved the old way - slowly and patiently across hundreds of miles of open country.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrovers rode with the mobs, guiding them from station to station along dusty stock routes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut behind every drover was something most people never saw.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA family.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBev didn't stay behind waiting for the drover to return. She travelled the road with him.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTogether they built a life on the move - first with a wagon, later with a converted bus carrying children, dogs, supplies and sometimes even horses along the stock routes of Victoria and New South Wales.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaundry flapped from makeshift clotheslines in open paddocks. Camps shifted every few miles. Babies were born along the way. Children grew up among sheep, dogs and campfires under enormous Australian skies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong the way there were unforgettable characters and bush stories - a fearless cattle dog named Bluey, Mrs McGreggor and the three sheep she used to lead mobs across the Hay bridge, a homemade horse float rattling behind the bus, and a family confrontation in Merrigum that no one present would ever forget.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt was a life of dust, humour, hardship and resilience - a way of living that has almost disappeared from modern Australia.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever Just a Wife\u003c\/strong\u003e is a remarkable story of droving life, family and the woman who proved she was far more than the drover's wife.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"INAudio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":66562735604016,"sku":"BD1j7p","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/1j7p-Square-cover.jpg?v=1776481471","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-1j7p","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}