Beer as chief nourishment and replacment currency, lentil soup spread on bread, and an English that is still incomprehensible after four months. The reality of life in the Australian Outback surpassed all cliches. Berliner Alex Tannen worked for four months in a construction company in the Bush, with affectionate, crude, one-of-a-kind builders, whose chief activity after dark is drinking. Alcohol is the recurring theme in these stories about his maverick colleagues and their day-to-day life on the geographical fringes of Australian society. Tannen landed in Australia in June... and was in for a surprise. It is a myth, sustained by shrewd marketing, that it is always hot Down Under. He didn't freeze, but only thanks to an improvised stove made from the drum of a washing machine. A field study of Australia's white natives, the Bushies, in 15 chapters."