As someone who grew up in rural Australia, on a farm that has been in my family for several generations, I read the opening to One Hundred Years of Dirt with the kind of delight that you feel upon seeing your own world perfectly articulated on the page. But while my own upbringing in a middle-class family 20 minutes from town, with a trampoline and a big backyard, would amount to only the beigest of autobiographies, Rick Morton’s memoir has a lot more to contend with.

Morton grew on a vast cattle station in far west Queensland, 10 hours drive from any major city. His family line is tangled with intergenerational violence and trauma, and this continues to hound him as grows up, moves away, and endeavours to forge a life and career for himself.

Morton delivers tough truths about Australian culture, politics and class, all with a whip-smart sense of humour and clean, inventive prose. He is unflinching and unvarnished in dealing with issues on both a national and personal scale. Deeply impactful, and completely unforgettable.

Reviewed by Emma Harvey

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and the author of three non-fiction books. My Year of Living Vulnerably launched in 2021.

Morton is also the author of One Hundred Years of Dirt (2018) and the extended essay On Money (Hachette, 2020).

Dirt is part family memoir, part book of essays about growing up on the outside in Australia. It explores intergenerational trauma, poverty, addiction and mental health and the role of a mother who tried to love enough for the failures of everyone else around her. He is the Senior Reporter for The Saturday Paper.

Originally from Queensland, Rick worked in Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne and Canberra as the social affairs writer for The Australian with a particular focus on social policy including the National Disability Insurance Scheme, aged care, the welfare system, religion and employment services. Rick is the winner of the 2013 Kennedy Award for Young Journalist of the Year and the 2017 Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist. He appears regularly on television, radio and panels discussing politics, the media, writing and social policy.

One Hundred Years of Dirt was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, longlisted for the 2018 Walkley Book of the Year, and longlisted for both Biography Book of the Year and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year for the 2019 ABIA Awards. Dirt was also shortlisted for the National Biography Award.