"Birdsville" My Year in the Back of Beyond
 

Very interesting book by Evan McHugh. Published earlier this year and covering his year in Birdsville with his wife.

Back-of-the-book blurb .......... "For a town with seventy residents (on a good day), Birdsville is remarkably well known - the birdsville Track, the rodeo, the pub, the infamous races. With its ruggedness, inaccessibility and larrikin charm, this small town on the edge of the Simpson Desert has become a symbol of the great Australian outback.

What is it about Birdsville that has made it stand so large in our legends? And what's it like to live there amongst the floods and the heat and the dust storms?

To find out, Evan McHugh packed up his Sydney home, bought a 4wd and headed off with his wife for a year in the back of beyond. Here, he tells us of the large adventures - midnight desert rescues, aerial mustering on vast cattle stations, relentless heat and massive floods - buit also the small details of life in one of Australia's most isolted towns - like driving 700 kilometres to go shopping. as the months fly by, Evan learns about an a ncient culture, sees dunes carpeted in millions of tiny wildflowers, and meets the members of an outback community facing extraordinary challenges with quiet determination and buckets of good humour.

"Birdsville" is about the brethtaking beauty and harshness of this country, the generosity of its salt-of-the-earth eople, and one man's discovery pof his own reserves of courage and resilience.

I just finished it (270 pages, with some excellent photos) and thoroughly enjoyed it. As one who has lived in what many regard as very isolated areas, I think it's a great book for anyone even remotely curious about what lies beyond the coastal fringe.

Thanks Bhokara - having just visited Birdsville I'd be interested in this book. I loved Birdsville and we had a fantastic time out there. Don't know if I could spend a year there though but I admire the folk who do make their living out there.

Stormbird, it's published by penguin. http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside...=9780670072712

Very readable, and disarmingly frank about his city bred preconceptions & ignorances. He has some other interesting looking titles:
Outback Heroes
Red Centre, Dark Heart

I'd not heard of him, and "Birdsville" was given to me by a friend who'd bought it after a visit last year. It covers the floods of February this year - very interesting as very little media attention was given to them due to the catastrophic fires in Victoria at the same time.

Cheers
Bokhara
Outback Pioneer

That book isn't available on Amazon in the US, Bokhara, but his others are. Did you know he is the author (editor?) of the National Geographic book on Sydney? I'll keep an eye out for Birdsville, sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.
Sally in Seattle

Hi Sally!
It might be a bit too recent for Amazon. I think it was only published a few months ago. His end note is dated 1st May 2009.
Thanks to the note on the Nat Geographic book.

Hope all is well with you & R. Just had a few days away - up to Orange via the Bells Line of Road, home via the Blue Mountains and then North to Nambucca Heads & back via Port Macquarie & Forster. There's been just enough rain to make the country lush and it's a picture of green & yellow, with all sorts of wattle in flower. Had lunch in Forster with friends & as we were eating, a pod of probably 20 dolphins were playing in the water about 20 yards away.

Glorious weather. Well, except for the dust storms last Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday's turned my friends' sheep a reddish brown and the white on the herefords' faces are now a pale chestnut. Don't even think about how much red dust can permeate a locked house :(

Reminded me of the years in the country, watching those red clouds rolling in from the west and racing to slam the doors & shutters closed in a vain attempt to reduce the dust. One gets soft, living in the "big smoke" !

Sally, it's at Gleebooks and they do international shipping:

http://www.gleebooks.com.au/default....el_writing_htm