Flashing Pedals

A one teacher school, a dusty paddock for a sports/rodeo ground, an artesian borehead, a collection of close knit families whose kids love thrashing through the scrub on BMX bikes. And that is West Siding, a small settlement in the dusty outback of Australia. Join Rodney, Scott, Kevin, Christine, Jack, their bushmen Dads and long suffering Mums as the West Siding BMXers take on the townies. Enjoy the laconic bushmens humour, reflected in their sons and the relief of Jack's Mother as she sees her uncoordinated, hyperactive, dyslexic little boy with stars in his eyes.
Settlements like West Siding do still exist – but not so many now as years ago when the railway carried most of the goods and people across the some of the vast Australian outback regions. Instead of today’s fly-in/fly out workers servicing the maintenance needs of very remote areas, the railway had many of these tiny settlements where the men who maintained the line could bring their families to live in houses provided by the railway department. A one teacher school, a dusty paddock that served as a sports/rodeo ground, an artesian borehead and the settlement of close knit families was complete.
The young author based this story on her own experiences. Living in a remote settlement like West Siding, she would hitch a lift with a mail truck to go BMX racing in a large town over 500 kilometres away. The kids of the settlement were keen to race BMX too and after race training on an assortment of bikes in the bush around the settlement, they went to a large town to race and events unfolded out much as in the story.