So often, stories about outback Australia revolve around people working on the land. 

But, not everyone who lives in the outback wears a big hat and cowboy boots.

Renee McBryde lives in Alice Springs, Australia’s red centre.

It’s a world away from the housing commission in Sydney where she spent her childhood.

Renee’s story is unlike any we have ever come across. At the age of 6 she learnt that her father, who has been absent her entire life, wasn’t working away, but indeed serving a prison sentence for murder.

Her relationship with her young mother was turbulent at times, which she was yet to realise was a part of a cycle within her family.

It’s easy to imagine how Renee’s life could have turned out.

What’s harder to wrap your mind around is how it did turn out. 

Today Renee is the author of two best selling memoirs, “House of Lies”, and “Unravelling Us”, and by day she works in the Child Protection unit as a social worker.

In this episode Renee shares the path that led her to this role, and what working in child protection is really like.

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