Book Launch

Join us for the launch of Wayback, a riotously honest and sharply observed memoir that traces a life lived across riverbanks, wheat plains, mine sites and workshop floors. Gerard Dean takes readers from his childhood on the Wakool River—mucking around with Lucky the whippet—to the red-dust years in Dimboola, where snakes, droughts, footy and “so-called mates” kept things interesting.

His journey continues through the outback mines and drilling rigs, where long days, rough humour and unexpected encounters (including French workmates with their own unusual culinary habits) shaped his early adulthood. From there, he heads south to work on warships and battle tanks before eventually building a manufacturing business, raising a family, and collecting a lifetime of stories worth sharing.

Told with disarming humour, a keen sense of place, and a voice that’s unmistakably regional Australia, Wayback captures the grit, mischief and heart that define a life well and truly lived.