The Happy Outback Hotel

When Amelia, Sophie and Charlotte arrive in the dusty outback town of Garnet Creek during their gap year, they expect nothing more than a quick stop at the campground attached to an abandoned hotel. What they don't expect is to find themselves completely charmed by a town that's barely changed in decades. Sitting around the campfire one evening, the girls dare to dream: what if they could transform the forgotten hotel into the heart of the community again - a proper pub where locals and travellers alike could gather?

When Irish photographer Finn O'Sullivan steps off the dusty road and into Garnet Creek, he's hoping the red dirt and wide horizons of the Australian outback will swallow him whole. Librarian Melanie Doherty recognises Finn the moment he walks through her door - and the colour drains from her face before she can stop it. Her reaction is immediate, complicated, and entirely her own business. She has a quiet life here. A safe one. A five-year-old son who is her whole world.