AustLit

'Back in the 1940s life was very different. On leaving school, teenagers were expected to get a good, steady job but Melbourne school friends Wendy Law and Shirley Duncan wanted to travel. Already they had made short bike trips around Victoria and even gone as far as Adelaide.

When the war ended they wanted to go to Europe but in 1946 Europe was struggling with refugees, bombed cities and rationing. The girls decided to ride to Queensland for the winter while Europe was settling down. They lived frugally, earning their way, getting lifts over difficult terrain and enjoying wonderful hospitality from Australians everywhere. Gradually their horizons expanded and they travelled on to Darwin, down to Adelaide, then over to the West. The four-footed companion they acquired went with them.

What they didn't realize was that Australia is almost as big as China and is equivalent in size to twenty European countries! Things which we regard as commonplace now, such as instant coffee and thermal clothing, were not known then but the Girl Cyclists battled their way around the vast continent and three years later returned to tell an amazing story.' (Publisher's blurb)