They called me Lightning is the story of Dean Jamieson. Born in Adelaide in 1940, Dean left school at sixteen to chase a childhood dream of becoming a real-life cowboy.
This is the story about a young teenage boy who decides to leave Urrbrae High School in Adelaide and begin a new life working on an outback station. From stepping off the Old Ghan at Abminga rail siding in the middle of the night, to living off the land with Aboriginal people in the Simpson Desert, to mustering cattle on foot, to chasing brumbies along the Birdsville Track, to how he earned his nickname “Lightning”; Dean recounts these and other entertaining stories about early sexual encounters, drought, isolation and near-death experiences.
Told in Dean’s own words, They called me Lightning describes tales of fear, adventure, survival and growing up whilst working on outback stations in South Australia and the Northern Territory in the late 1950s and early 1960s.