Last Horse Standing

An amazing true story of courage and survival in the outback by the bestselling author of The Horses Too Are Gone.

In 1971, bushman Jack Camp went mustering wild cattle—'cleanskins'—in a vast and isolated stretch of the Kimberley coast. The potential profit would be huge, but so were the risks. It was the unpredictable and dauntingly hot wet season; the forbidding region was infested with snakes and crocodiles, and the cattle would have to be swum out across a river notorious for its dramatic tidal surges.

Everything was going according to plan when, out of the blue, a cyclone struck, flooding the area and wreaking devastation. The cattle and horses were scattered, the camp and equipment destroyed. Jack, his young son, and a teenage stockman were left without food, fire, shelter, or a means of escape. No one knew their exact location as they were covering a huge area during the muster, and they were expected to be gone for some weeks.

As time passed without rescue and they grew weaker, Jack decided their only chance was to head for a cattle station some fifty kilometres away. Though he knew it would be deserted for the wet season, Jack was pinning all his hopes on finding assistance there.