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  • Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl

  • By: Sonia Henry
  • Narrated by: Sarah Blackstone
  • Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (48 ratings)

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Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl cover art

Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl

By: Sonia Henry
Narrated by: Sarah Blackstone
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Publisher's Summary

The bestselling author of Going Under recounts her real-life journey from hard-partying Sydney medical intern to dust-covered rural GP.

Solo GP needed for medical clinic, mining town in Pilbara region, Western Australia. Car and accommodation provided. On call paid extra. Close proximity to absolutely nothing.

Going Under, Sonia Henry's autobiographical novel about the stresses and failures and triumphs of a young doctor struggling to find herself in a broken system was published in 2019. In real life, Sonia was the one having the affair with the older heart surgeon, and in real life, her heart ended up broken. Sonia found herself depressed, confused, with the guy owned the bottle-o on the corner of Darlinghurst road as her surrogate counsellor. She knew one thing: she couldn't keep living in the neighbourhood she'd come to think of as 'theirs'.

Desperate to escape, she answered an ad calling for a GP in a tiny mining town in the middle of the western Australian desert. The Pilbara is home to iron ore, the ten deadliest snakes in the world, and red dirt. The plan was to stay for one month, instead she ended up on a cross country journey into the core of Australia, and herself. She would spend the next two years working in some of the remotest parts of the country, where she met an eclectic bunch of patients and friends, and also opened her eyes to the truths, both good and bad, of the country she calls home.

Before she knew it, Sonia had gone from being a dressed-to-the-nines Sydney party girl to a red dust-covered, RM-wearing bushie—and loving it. From learning how to shoot in the middle of the desert, to living in places where there are more crocodiles than people, to opal mines, rivers, horrendous health inequities, dongas in the middle of the northern territory, and pearl divers, there isn't a part of Australia that she hasn't experienced.

©2023 Sonia Henry (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd

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What listeners say about Put Your Feet in the Dirt, Girl

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Authentic, and entertaining

There were stories that me laugh and those that made me cry. The author describes her adventures of working in some of Australia's most remote locations. Describing the rich scenery, the challenges, and inspiring people met along the way.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The honesty she shared her story with.

Travelling in the north of Australia, I came across some of these communities, while walking in the raging heat.
Stopping to talk to some of the locals, from five to seventy year olds, I have carried their stories with me for years.
This writer adds to my experience with so much detail.
I am now ashamed to call myself Australian.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Honest and gripping story

I really loved hearing about this young GP’s journey to some of the most remote parts of Australia, and her honest sharing of her experiences in remote Aboriginal communities.
Very moving.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Enthralling

Her writing, despite the often disturbing subject matter or story is enchanting! She manages to capture the difficult and complex. Such intelligent insight.
It is shameful that on so many levels and areas, the health, care and resources of the mining communities and the indigenous is so appalling! Beyond appalling.
Thanks Sonny for the allowing us to see and hear it though you eyes and ears!
Would love a pink wine with you any day!

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1 person found this helpful

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Great Australian story

I really enjoyed this story. It encourages deep thought about our history and where we go from here.
Why is all indigenous funding staying in the cities, to think some remote communities have no appropriate equipment available for sound diagnosis ,when the city dwellers are complaining about the lack of GPS or the wait times ..

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Enlightening and easy to listen to

A beautifully Australian perspective of the world beyond the city limits, written by someone who writes refreshingly from the heart and not the ego. Thank you Sonya :-)

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great story

candid and insightful journey into remote Australia and what it taught one person, and could teach us all.

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Great read

Highly recommend. Unexpected ending. It brings to light problems in small remote communities but some good stories in there.

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Great read

Fortunately for me, I’ve been to many of the places that Sonia talks about in her book. We spent six years in an mining town in the great sandy desert, Western Australia, travelling extensively the length and breadth of WA. We travelled across the desert on the descent track up through the Northern Territory and out to many of the remote aboriginal communities. Now we’ve been 20 years in the central west of New South Wales travelling out West. This book has brought back some great memories of places, experiences, people and I found I could visualise many palace’s having being there.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Captivating, raw and real

Australia needs more truths like this. Honest, eye opening, empathetic, and real. Thank you Sonia for the bravery and honesty to highlight the medical and social issues of rural and remote regions of this beautiful country. You had me in tears, I was mad, I loved your courage, your characters and your love for Australia. I hope many Aussies find this book and are enlightened to life outside the populated areas. Great work.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.