The Desert Swimmer
This article is a book review of, "The Desert Swimmer"
Book author, Brendan Cullen with Paul Mitchell. Published, 2026, 246 pages.
Brendan Cullen is a country boy who happens to run Kars Station with 10,000 sheep located 600 km from the sea. His life journey turns to an odd desire to want to attempt to swim the English Channel.
He became so named as "The Desert Swimmer," and this book is his voice explaining this extraordinary journey.
A decision to attempt to swim the English Channel is so far opposite to the environment at Kars Station, it is immediately either wacko or a challenge of enduring dedication and determination to see it through.
Click here to see where is Lake Pamamaroo, one of Brendan's regular swim training locations.
But which is it, and why do we want to 'climb such mountains'? “I climb it because it is there,” says the mountain climber.
This is a cliché that Brendan Cullen in his book does not even consider. Not only is he a willing participant in “walking through” open doors, but he is one “tough bush bloke” who speaks a familiar outback Ocker and one who could do “endless thinking” on the land. It is an “isolation that can tune the senses” to the beauty of the land. His connection to the land there is umbilical. But when circumstances lead astray, that “endless thinking” can be “a lot of that amounted to fighting myself inside.”
Have you ever had “a feeling that was just hovering around me all the time”?
Brendan has had a lot of time to think, driving around tending to chores on 60,000 hectares of sheep station.
He has a family, a job, and expectations. He has a past. He has humility.
From the vast expanse of the outback, Brendan puts his endearing voice into this book, from his childhood, to growing up on a family outback farm, and all that comes with it. This book is his story, and it has many stories intertwined with his attempt to swim the English Channel and how he got there and what it all means.
The book reads like he talks; he's having a yarn about it all, but with the covers off, and he easily digs deep to find the words to put to the “why climb that mountain?”
I’ve seen him in person and he knows how to tell a story with charm. The book was written by Brendan Cullen with Paul Mitchell. The combination works as we get Brendan’s authentic voice, his own story, but it is a well-structured, engaging book style that draws you along the journey with all the painful ups and downs. There are 20 chapters over 245 pages, with “In the Mind of a Swimmer” - “Solo swims are team sports” - “Work-life unbalanced” and of course painfully - “Know when to walk away.”
Brendan’s easy voice is full of colloquialisms like “being three sheets to the wind,” “putting the yabby nets in the dam about a kay away,” and “it made the penny drop, and it clanged like a cymbal.” Having heard Brendan talk about it in person, well, he just sounds like that. But he isn’t afraid to go deeper; this book is a story about the perils of not doing certain things and of changing mindsets about what’s possible. It is not only about the long path to finding your voice, but going beyond that, to being an inspiration to others and to use it to connect and help others understand what is their journey, their team, their land, their conversations, their own story. We can all “be easily broken with pride.”
Congratulations, Brendan, on sharing your story and inspiring so many others along the way. This is great yarn in Aussie local style that we can all learn from.
Further information at The Desert Swimmer and to order the book for RRP $34.99
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