Bourke and Beyond

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Bourke has generated remarkable stories from its very beginning. Over the space of forty years, my eyes have grown wider and wider as I’ve met and read about the people who’ve lived on the red Western Plains of my home state. They’ve taught me lots about Australia and myself.
 
I’ve been inspired watching Stanley and Lucy Drummond driving prodigious distances to gather crippled or blinded kids living in isolation to take them to Sydney for treatment and a beach holiday. Then seeing the way their infectious faith prompted former stage coach driver Sid Coleman to learn to fly and buy a plane to put wings under their dream of air ambulances lifted my spirits. And what about the visionary couple’s audacity in recruiting barnstorming aviatrix Nancy Bird to pilot nurses out to remote outback villages in her Gipsy Moth bi-plane?
 
Extraordinary!
 
That’s just a couple of the twenty-five stories I’ve gathered into this collection. I love the humility and simplicity of these people who quietly got on painting heroic deeds on the vast canvas that stretches beyond Bourke. I’ve felt honoured to tell their stories and hope they find a place in your heart and imagination too.
 
There’s a local saying that “Once you’ve crossed the North Bourke Bridge you’ll come back.”
This is only a handful of Bourke yarns – there’s a heap more waiting to be told sometime soon.
‘Bourke and Beyond’ can be purchased from the Back o’ Bourke Exhibition Centre or on The Outback Historian website.