Bentear

About the Book

This is a unique and fascinating story of adventure, comradeship and courage, entwined in a desperate fight for survival. The backdrop is the beautifully wild domain of the western grey kangaroo - the diminishing forest and woodland of an ancient continent.

Everywhere on this planet that man has gone, he has pillaged and plundered with wild abandon. Whatever he wants, he takes. If another species stands in his way or can be of some value, then he mercilessly removes, abuses or exploits it. Most creatures can do very little in the midst of such an onslaught, they are simply swamped by the tsunami of greed and technology. Faced with a shrinking habitat, this often means death. On occasion, however, an animal becomes determined not to accept, without a fight, its own extinction.

This is a book that takes you to another world, the mystical and often dangerous world of the Australian bush, and delivers you right into the heart of this life and death struggle. Share the hopes and aspirations, trials and setbacks, the bloodshed and heartache as Bentear, and his brave band of kangaroos, battle for the right to exist. Forced to cope with all that nature and man can throw at them, they refuse to disappear from the land without a fight. They turn to each other and their unbreakable bond of friendship, as well as their unshakable faith in their leader, to battle their way out of the darkness that closes in around them.

About the Author

George Lilly was born in Margaret River, Western Australia, but was raised in the neighbouring coastal town of Augusta. At that time (1960's), it was even more of a remote backwater than it is today, bordered on one side by the Blackwood River, on another by the Indian and Southern Oceans, and surrounded by deep tracts of wild bushland. It was a child's paradise, a fact he didn't fully appreciate until he was much older. From an early age he developed an affinity for all things Australian, as most red-blooded Aussie boys do, but he acquired a special affection for the triad of nature that surrounded him - the river, the sea and the bush. At the age of eleven his father, whom he absolutely idolised, died suddenly, and his whole world was turned upside down. His family moved further inland to Manjimup, another country town, where he found more bush and bigger trees, this time the majestic karri forests. Here he finished his secondary education and met the love of his life, his wife Vicki. Both he and Vicki became teachers and spent many years working at various high schools around rural Western Australia (more bush and wild animals). Most recently he was Head of Social Science at Frederick Irwin Anglican School in Mandurah, about an hour's drive south of Perth, the state's capital. Besides the bushland, his other great loves are his horses (he and Vicki have seven - at last count), and history, which he teaches with a passion.