Outback Pioneers

In Outback Pioneers, Evan McHugh gathers the enthralling stories of the men and women who opened up the Australian outback and, in the process, discovered the beauty and terror of this extraordinary country.

We meet the little-known convict explorer John Wilson, the first European to cross the Blue Mountains, though history favours the proper English gentlemen Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson. We follow Australia's greatest drover, Nat Buchanan, as he blazes stock routes from one side of the country to another. We marvel at the genius and grit of the men who overcome political treachery to build the Coolgardie Pipeline and the Trans-Australian Railway.

There are some delightful inclusions: a gentle Pakistani cameleer who saves foolhardy expeditioners; a nerdy ham radio operator who invents the pedal radio and paves the way for John Flynn's Flying Doctor; two bush nurses who toil in the ruins of a pub while saving outback lives; and the modern-day pioneers who battle apathy to save endangered wildlife.

Plus, there are the intriguing stories of R.M. Williams, Cattle King James Tyson, and the women behind the CWA and the School of the Air.