Margareta Osborn

A fifth-generation farmer from Gippsland Victoria, Margareta Osborn writes rural fiction which reflects her love of the bush and country life. A past winner of a prestigious Victorian Rural Women's Bursary and a Marcus Oldham Rural Leadership program graduate, Margareta is passionate about farming, rural life and the resilient and wonderful people that make up small communities all over the country. That passion shines through in her award winning books (Bella's Run, Hope's Road, Mountain Ash, Rose River and The Cowboy) set all over Australia, in places that she has visited or lived, featuring the sorts of personalities and people she knows well.

Margareta grew up on her family's historic dairy farm in Gippsland, Victoria, the middle child of three. She completed her HSC and left Gippsland for the bright lights of Melbourne only to jump on a home-bound country train three months later muttering, 'You can take the girl from the country, but not the country from this girl.' She didn't return to the city, preferring paddocks, mountains and billy-tea to pavements, tall buildings and lattes.

Holding a Diploma in Conservation and Land Management, with years of experience in Landcare and agricultural extension, Margareta failed dismally at governmental report writing as everything she wrote ended up like a chapter from a book. Which gave her a hint.