A new title by Alexa Simmons entitled 'Kajirri The Bush Missus' covers the broad sweep of life on an outback station from a woman’s point of view.

It tells the story of Alexa’s life there as chief cook and station manager’s wife on Victoria River Downs. It adds a vital piece to the story of this renowned cattle property and more generally to the story of white women in the Australian outback.

The book is professionally edited by Darrell Lewis who also helped to write Charlie Schultz’s 'Beyond the Big Run', a best- seller in Australia.

Mention the outback and most people would think of remoteness, wide open spaces, heat waves and droughts. And men – the stockmen, drovers, shearers, black trackers, miners, crocodile shooters and others.

The outback is a man’s country, but it is also a woman’s world.

Women have lived in the outback for generations, yet in the popular imagination and in the bulk of outback literature, they are overshadowed by men. Fortunately the situation is changing.

Alexa grew up in the genteel suburbs of Adelaide. The youngest in a family of 7, she led a very sheltered and protected life, until 1948 at the age of 23, she left to join her sister on the huge and famous Northern Territory cattle station, Victoria River Downs. This was to change the course of her life forever.

Kajirri tells of how Alexa’s life developed after moving to the property and after a short time becoming the ‘missus’ at the remote Mt Sanford outstation and the mother of four children. It tells of how she coped with primitive conditions and building relationships with the Aboriginal people of the area.

This new title will be welcomed by all – men and women – who love Australia’s remote inland country and its history.

The Administrator of the Northern Territory, the Honourable Ted Egan AO, will launch this new CQU Press title on February 24 in Government House, Darwin. Cattlemen are also gathering for a celebration and commemoration of another CQU Press title, 'Colonel Lionel Rose', in Alice Springs.

'Kajirri The Bush Missus' has been published by Central Queensland University Press, a specialist publisher of ‘outback books’. It retails for $28.95.

For more details or to purchase this new title, visit www.outbackbooks.com .