Alice to Nowhere

They say no one from the convict settlement of Sydney Town crossed the steep ranges of the Blue Mountains until 1813. But the quick-witted convict Clancy Fitzgerald did it in 1798, dragging with him the proud - but reluctant - Eliza Philips. Faced with constant danger and wrenching isolation, Clancy and Eliza found themselves pale-skinned strangers in a land of ancient traditions and spiritual beliefs.

The world's toughest car race. Twenty-one days of searing heat and rock-hard desert tracks; of blowouts and breakdowns; of subterfuge and sabotage. Ten thousand miles of dust and glory. Driving at breakneck speed over Australia's roughest roads and through the most appalling conditions imaginable, six competitors break free from the pack and fight for the lead, gradually finding themselves entangled in a web of deceit, betrayal and danger. Dust and Glory is best-selling author Evan Green's stirring account of the most grueling race of them all.

He thought he had everything until tragedy struck... Adam Ross, orphaned at nine, cherished a dream - that one day he would have land of his own. The opal fields of Coober Pedy offered his first glimpse of riches - and Nellie, a dusky beauty, provided his first taste of love... From the western plains of New South Wales to the balmy waters of Sydney Harbour, from the grinding heat of a West Australian cattle station to the eerie desert shores of Lake Eyre, Adam was driven by his ambition.

Territory is the story of Henrietta Southern, a young Englishwoman who trades her war-torn homeland for a place of wild tropical storms and searing heat, crocodile-infested rivers and barren red wilderness. Six months after the bombing of Darwin, she joins her new husband, Spitfire pilot Terence Galloway, for a new life on his Northern Territory cattle station. It is also the story of their sons. Of Malcolm and Kit, two brothers who grow up in the harsh but beautiful environment and share a baptism of fire as young men in the jungles of Vietnam. 

Yearning for what they’d left behind and disillusioned by city living, Jack Ferguson and Harry Turner leave Perth to return to the rough opal-mining environment of Coober Pedy, on the edge of the Stuart Ranges in South Australia. They discover, however, that all is not as idyllic as they remembered. They face harsh conditions, personal trials and a lack of funds. But determination, hard work and a little luck see them begin to establish themselves....

Spanning three generations, Capricornia tells the story of Australia's North. It is a story of whites and Aborigines and Asians, of chance relationships that can form bonds for life, of dispossession, murder and betrayal.

In 1788, Thomas Kendall, a naïve 19-year-old sentenced to transportation for burglary, finds himself bound for Sydney Town and a new life in the wild and lawless land beneath the Southern Cross. Thomas fathers a dynasty that will last more than 200 years. His descendants play their part in the forging of a nation, but greed and prejudice see an irreparable rift in the family which will echo through the generations. It is only at the dawn of the new millennium - as an old journal lays bare a terrible secret - that the family can finally reclaim its honour.... 

Patrick Garrity started life unwanted and unloved as the bastard son of a female convict. Barely out of his teens, he worked to make a new life for himself in the limitless back country of New South Wales. There he met Mayrah, the native girl he bought to satisfy his passions and the woman who would change his destiny and that of an entire continent. Divided by competing cultures, they were nevertheless united by their fierce love of the land -- and eventually, each other.

The Birdsville Track is one of the best-known - and loneliest – tracks in Australia, and for 20 years Tom Kruse was the mailman, battling the searing heat, floods, and mechanical breakdowns. He made the run every fortnight, and was a lifeline to the isolated settlements and stations along the way, delivering everything from letters to essential supplies. The Track is still just that - a track through the desert and sandhills. Tom began in the days before reliable vehicles, good communication, and air access in case of emergency. He made running repairs of his truck, he loaded and unloaded tons of stores to ferry his cargo across flooded creeks.

Birdsville is one of the most remote police postings in Australia. It can be lonely and uneventful for weeks, then the dramas come thick and fast: from desert rescues to rising floods, venomous vipers to visiting VIPs. Throw in heat, dust and flies and it's not a job for the faint-hearted, unless you're Senior Constable Neale McShane, who has single-handedly taken care of a beat the size of Victoria for the past 10 years. Recently retired, Neale and his family thrived on the adventures and colourful times.

Best-selling author Evan McHugh gets behind the wheel of his four-wheel drive to find out what life is like in outback stations. Given special access to these properties, Evan goes behind the scenes at Adria Downs in the dead heart of Central Australia, helps drove cattle from the air at Wave Hill, and gets a lesson in trapping dingoes at the remote Commonwealth Hill station. Following in the footsteps of the pioneering greats, Evan reveals the fascinating history of these outback stations, and what it takes to work on one today.

Ross Grant has always felt like the black sheep of his wealthy Scottish family. An explorer at heart, he dreams of life on Waybell, their remote cattle station in Australia’s last remaining wilderness, the Northern Territory. Then his brother Alastair is branded a deserter after going missing during the Great War, and Ross is coerced into marrying Darcey Thomas, a woman he has never met, to save the family name. Disgusted with his manipulative family, he turns his back on his unwanted wife just hours after the ceremony and heads to Waybell with no plans to return.  

During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided ... without its people's knowledge. A British airbase in the middle of nowhere; an atomic weapons testing ground; an army of raw youth led by powerful, ambitious men - a cocktail for disaster. Such is Maralinga in the spring of 1956.

Martin Carter is having a crook day. His home life's a misery, he's been retrenched by the bank, and everyone's forgotten his birthday. But a million-dollar payroll, a pistol, and a split-second decision change everything. Hurtling north on a motorcycle with the intriguing Faith, Martin encounters a mysterious hit-man, a new-age bike gang, a reclusive media mogul, and the booby-trapped mountain hideout of an old schoolmate.

It's 1963 and Sally Mitchell, the daughter of a New Zealand sheep farmer, is on her way to England. On a stop-over in Sydney, she impulsively takes a job as a governess at Barra Creek, and finds herself in a different world: one dominated by John Monroe and his strict and proper wife, Lorna. Here, Sally's life changes forever. Only Lorna knows the truth of a mysterious death and a terrible injustice. Now, in 2003, she searches for the former governess to and share her horrific secret.