Tales from the heart

There’s an unforgettable moment when you drive through Heavitree Gap, a broad rift in central Australia’s MacDonnell Ranges, as Alice Springs reveals itself in all its sprawling splendour. The Ghan railway line and the Stuart Highway that connect the Red Centre with Darwin and Adelaide pass through this great gouge in the ancient rock face and, when it rains, the Todd River also flows through it. It’s an entrance as dramatic as a theatre curtain rising as the desert landscape gives way to outback suburbia.

For corporate lawyer and author Tanya Heaslip, driving through The Gap means homecoming. Having spent her childhood on the 1515-square-kilometre Bond Springs cattle station just north of town, she has lived and worked all over the world. Her journey began in Adelaide where she went to school and university and includes travels in the UK and Europe, a stint teaching English in the Czech Republic and almost two decades