UNFORGIVING by Carmel Beresford

It's March 2011. Our grazing property, Farnham Plains, is in pristine condition following summer rain and a record-breaking flood in the Paroo River. To look this way is rare for country in this dry, parched corner of south-west Queensland. The river is full, long strands of grass wave in the late summer breeze and cattle are fat. Life is close to perfect for me, my husband, Mick, our twenty-one year old son, Sam and his partner, Krysta.

Then tragedy strikes. Sam is run over and critically injured by the propeller blades of a gyrocopter he'd purchased from his instructor, Campbell (Cam) Taylor the previous day. The propeller slices through his body causing critical head and upper body injuries. Sam's life hangs in the balance for eight days but then he succumbs to his wounds and dies.

Through the nightmare journey of inspections, reports, investigations and ultimately, an inquest into Sam's death, memories of Sam's life, our life together for twenty-one years, the love we shared and the struggles we endured for our property, 'Farnham Plains', come to the fore.