ASO READER’S NOTES
TITLE:
AUTHOR:
PUBLISHER:
PRICE:
ISBN:
PUB DATE:
AUDIENCE:
READER:
Good Enough for a Sheep Station
David Cox
Allen & Unwin
$24.99
9781743319031
February 2014
4-8
Carolyn Walsh
SYNOPSIS
This is the third and last instalment in the series of books begun with The Road to Goonong
and continued in The Fair Dinkum War.
Good Enough for a Sheep Station is a very moving family and coming-of-age story,
focusing on David Cox’s droving work on a sheep station, the memorable laconic characters
he meets along the way, the natural storytelling culture of that time, and the knowledge of
bushmanship and horsemanship that his father passed on to him. It contains wonderfully
observed vignettes that bring a bygone way of life alive for readers young and old.
AUTHOR STYLE
David Cox is a much loved Australian illustrator whose style of ‘scratchy’ ink and
watercolour pictures is instantly recognisable. He has been described as ‘a master of body
language’, and spontaneity and wit characterise his illustrations.
Good Enough for a Sheep Station is an excellent example of Cox’s style. Simply drawn and
almost cartoon like, its illustrations suggest a child’s less serious view of the world and
provide a mood of positive energy and enthusiasm.
Written as a memoir, Cox describes in simple but humorous ways the good, as well as the
bad, aspects of growing up on a property in the 1940s, including the savage impact of
drought and flood, the need to leave your family to be educated, and the unexpected
kindness shown by strangers in your community
.
AUTHOR MOTIVATION
‘I wrote this book as a companion to my two recently published picture books, The Road to
Goonong and The Fair Dinkum War. All three books are memoirs of my childhood in
picture book form. They are mainly about periods in Australian history: the Great
Depression, The Second World War and then post war times in country Australia. Maybe
they are really just about growing up.
‘I hope [Good Enough for a Sheep Station] might provide an entry into discussion and study
of that particular time and I hope it might catch the imagination of children of a wide spread
of ages.’
David Cox
AUTHOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION
David Cox was born and reared in country Queensland. When he left school, he worked for
five years as a jackaroo on outback sheep and cattle stations. At twenty-one he went to
London and enrolled at St Martin's School of Art. He stayed in Europe for eight years,
spending time in France and Spain. Back in Australia, he worked as an artist in the
newspaper industry, while illustrating children's books with texts by other writers as well as
picture books with his own texts. In 2007 he was awarded the Dame Isabelle Rankin Award
for distinguished services to Children's Literature in Queensland.
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS
'I have always loved David Cox's work. Every opening is full of action and humour ... In
good times and bad the warmth and love of the family shine through.' Magpies
'Charming and touching ... What a lovely way for children to learn about life in the outback
a long time ago' Good Reading
EDUCATIONAL APPLICABILITY
Themes: family, life on an outback station, childhood, coming-of-age, storytelling,
father-son relationship, resilience

Study the cover and title of Good Enough for a Sheep Station. Have students look at
the image used on the cover and discuss why it may have been chosen. What sort of
time and place do you expect the book to be set? What sort of mood or tone do all of
these elements create? Do you expect the story to be humorous or serious? Now, ask
students to read the back cover blurb and look at the back cover illustration. Do their
predictions change or remain the same?

Read the story and then ask students if living on a sheep station would be very
different to the lives they lead today. Make a list of similarities and differences.
Some of the things that might be listed as similarities include: living with your
parents, doing chores and doing school work at the kitchen table. Differences might
be not seeing other children for long periods of time, receiving school work via the
post, riding a horse to pick up the mail. Ask students whether they would like to
swap their lives for life on a sheep station in the 1940s.

Look at the two pictures of the picnic in Goondiwindi where Mr Cameron sits on the
death adder. How has the author shown Mr Cameron’s shock and surprise in the
pictures? Why do you think the author’s mother told her son that Mr Cameron
wasn’t shocked and surprised? What might the author be saying about his mother’s
sense of humour?

Look at the images of Roy the stockman on the next double page spread. On the left
hand page they are framed and packed with detail and action. The right hand page is
very different, with a sparsely filled unframed image. Why do you think the author
did this? What do the images tell us that the words don’t?

The author writes about receiving his school lessons in a big brown paper envelope
from the Queensland Correspondence School. Find out more about how children in
remote areas went to school during the 1940s. What do kids who live in the outback
do in 2015?

Why do you think the author’s dad say’s ‘Good enough for a sheep station’ when he
finishes repairing fences and stockyards? Why do you think the author has chosen
this as the title of the story? As you read the book, compile a list of unfamiliar words
and research their meaning.

Imagine you are the author and living in the midst of a drought where the only water
you can get is carted in drums from far away. How might this change how you live at
home?

Sometimes an object can remind you of someone you feel very strongly about. What
object in the story reminds the author of his father? Why do you think he feels like
crying when he receives it from the new manager of the sheep station? Do you think
he is happy or sad to receive it? What in the text makes you think that?