Victoria Reiby
Author of “By The Horns” – interviewed February 27, 2026.
Author Victoria Reiby is from Queensland, Australia and has published several books, including “By The Horns” and the “Weipa Crocodile Trilogy”.
What would you like to share about yourself?
Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity to showcase my work. To understand my writing, you probably have to understand where I parked my boots first.
I’m a Queenslander through and through. I grew up in a small rural town where the horizon felt endless, and the stories were even longer. When you grow up in those communities, you learn two things early: how to tell a good yarn around a campfire, and that the land is a character all its own: one that can be as generous as it is unforgiving.
That upbringing is the heartbeat of By the Horns and many of my other outback novels. I’ve always been fascinated by the ‘unseen’ Australia, the grit of the cattle stations, the natural beauty of Cape York, Far North Queensland, and the way history buried in the red dirt has a habit of digging its way back up. I don’t just write about these places; I write from them.
When I’m not at the keyboard, I’m usually thinking about the intersection of justice, legacy, and the unique brand of ‘mateship’ that keeps people alive in the middle of nowhere. I’m a firm believer that our regional stories are some of the most powerful in the world, and I’m just lucky enough to be the one putting them on the page (and now, hopefully, the screen).
Tell us about the inspiration for By The Horns?
I was out at the Birdsville Races, which is usually one of the hottest, driest spots on Earth. It’s a town with one pub and a bakery that suddenly swells from a handful of locals to nearly 10,000 people for one weekend in September. Back then, the gender ratio was… let’s just say ‘lopsided.’ Out of those thousands of attendees, I was one of only three women.
That’s where I met the real ‘Rocky.’ He was a sinewy North Queenslander with a limp and a drawl that could span a gorge. He’d spent years on the US PBR (Professional Bull Riders) circuit, earning enough to come home and buy his own cattle station.
I remember he asked if I would like some lemonade scones. I laughed, openly sceptical that he could produce a decent scone under these conditions. I didn’t think a retired bull rider in a dusty camp was going to whip up high tea. But the next morning, in the middle of the wettest races in history, there he was with an enamel plate of scones, jam and cream.
That year, we ended up flooded in. My poor Honda Civic wasn’t going anywhere in that Queensland mud, which gave me time to really listen to ‘Rocky’s’ life experience on the circuit and the accident in the ring that broke his back, forcing him into an early retirement. Rocky became the blueprint for the character, but the rest of the book is my imagination running wild with the question: What really happens behind the gates of a remote cattle station when the world isn’t looking?
So, it’s Rocky Barns Book 1. What comes next?
It is a busy time in the Rocky Barnes world. I have just finished the first draft of Book 2, Ashes to Dust, and because I see these stories so vividly, I have already completed the screenplays for both Book 1 and Book 2. I want to ensure that the transition from the page to the screen maintains that raw Queensland grit.
In parallel, I have been in deep development for the last eight months to adapt Murders in the Outback, the first part of The Weipa Crocodile Trilogy, into a feature film. I wrote the pitch deck and screenplay for the project myself, and have a major project meeting lined up for March. It is an exciting phase for the trilogy, and I am looking forward to seeing these characters come to life.
Tell us more about the The Weipa Crocodile Trilogy.
The Weipa Crocodile trilogy is a crime and literary saga set in the remote landscapes of Far North Queensland. At the heart of the story is Bruce Hudson, an Indigenous man living in exile on the outskirts of Weipa, Cape York, for decades. When Bruce was eighteen, he made the life-altering mistake of revealing the location of a sacred site to a geologist named Walt Henry.
The site was rich in high-grade aluminium ore, and Walt Henry used that knowledge to stake a claim on the land. He eventually became the richest man in Cape York through the mining industry. Despite Bruce’s role in that discovery, his name was never added to the lease. He was left with nothing but the shame of betraying his mob, which led to his long banishment.
The trilogy begins when the mining company Rio Tinto expands its operations onto the Wik Mungkan mob’s land. The expansion coincides with a series of murders, and the first man to die is Walt Henry himself. Because of their history, the town’s suspicion falls immediately on Bruce. The story follows his struggle to survive in the bush, using his ancestral skills, while navigating a world where the past, the law, and the land collide. It is a look at the heavy price of a single mistake and the volatile nature of justice in the Far North.
What’s your personal favourite to date?
My bestseller and personal favourite to date is Book One of the Weipa Crocodile Trilogy, Murders in the Outback. It is the book that really allowed me to bridge the gap between a gritty crime mystery and a deeper exploration of the Australian landscape and its history.
Because I grew up in a rural town and have spent so much time in these remote areas, writing this story felt like a homecoming. It allowed me to dig into the complexities of Cape York and the high-stakes world of the mining industry while keeping a very human story at the centre. There is something about Bruce Hudson’s character and resilience that resonated with me from the very first chapter. Seeing how readers have connected with his journey and the mystery surrounding Weipa has been incredibly rewarding.
What else can we expect from you in the future?
In the next six months, readers can look forward to the release of Ashes to Dust, the second book in the Rocky Barnes series. This story takes a major turn as the narrative heads to Texas, where the stakes are higher, and the environment is just as rugged as the Australian outback. The book follows Rocky alongside three Texan cowboys, all of whom are ex-PBR riders, and Alice, an Australian journalist. It was fascinating to write the intersection of these two worlds: the Australian grit and the Texas rodeo culture, and the new twists and turns that emerge when these characters collide far from home. Beyond the release of Ashes to Dust, I have also been busy completing a number of screenplays. I am currently working on a new project titled Still Here, which is being developed simultaneously as a novel and a screenplay. It is set in the isolated town of Georgetown in Western Queensland and centres on a twenty-six-year-old cold case that is reopened when a new series of murders begins. At the heart of that story is a character named Rusty Miller. It is a very productive period for me, and I am excited to see these stories moving towards both the bookshelf and the screen.
Jason concludes
I think you demonstrate what self-published authors who gain recognition can achieve. Many of us don’t have a famous name (as yet), but here you are writing a screenplay for a feature film.
Anyone new to Victoria Reiby’s work, remember you read about Victoria here first! I hope Victoria remembers me when she makes it big! 😁
