Established Coonawarra wine identity Doug Balnaves published his book ‘Dusty’ last year, which has been raising funds for Stand Like Stone Foundation with each sale.
The book is a collection of 18 short stories based in Coonawarra with illustrations by John Draper throughout.
The stories are led by Dusty the sheepdog and involve plenty of humour while also exploring a philosophical path.
“Some of the things actually happen, or nearly happen, or might have happened, but they’re all involved with the things that take place in a rural community and anecdotes,” Mr Balnaves said.
Mr Balnaves said they decided to donate to Stand Like Stone because his late wife Annette was very involved with the foundation and was a founding director.
“As we have been more involved with some of the funds with Stand LIke Stone you realise just how much help is needed in the community, it’s staggering, really,” he said.
Proving that good things take time, Mr Balnaves said it took around 60 years to achieve the finished product of the published book.
“It did not happen overnight, it just gradually developed,” he said.
Mr Balnaves said he was encouraged to write stories when he was attending Penola Area School by his English teacher from England.
Mr Balnaves said Margaret Muller, who was once the Penola High School deputy principal and English teacher, used to run writer’s weekends in conjunction with the Penola festival.
“She used to bring out a booklet of all the stories and poems and things that people wrote in those weekends and she put one of my stories in,” he said.
Ms Muller also printed one of Mr Balnaves’ stories in one of her books and through Writers South Australia he was put in touch with former ABC news producer Alan Atkinson.
“He was extremely encouraging and I became quite a close friend of his and he said ‘you have to put these together in a book’,” Mr Balnaves said.
“He was also very helpful in finding someone to publish and away we went.”
‘Dusty’ can be purchased through the Balnaves cellar door or the local newsagent and for each $25 book sold, $10 is donated to Stand Like Stone.
