Walkabout

by Charles and Elsa Chauvel

The Chauvels were well-known film-makers in Australia in the first half of the 20th century – their last project was a series of tv programmes for the BBC, and this book was published in 1959 to accompany it. I know it is a fairly rare book because it didn’t exist on Goodreads until I added it! The couple spent some months travelling mostly by road, but also occasionally by train, small plane and helicopter, from Sydney across to South Australia and up north to Darwin. They visited many large properties, interviewing various station managers, workers, aboriginal communities and families living in the outback , including opal miners at Coober Pedy. They took part in the School of the Air, both in the head office in Alice Springs, and also while visiting families, and accompanied the Royal Flying Doctor Service on several trips. They often stayed at the stations, but also often camped. The book is written in the first person by both authors – Charles mostly describing the lives of the men (he worked as a jackeroo in early life) and Elsa more involved with the lives of women and children. They were both very interested and sympathetic towards indigenous people – they cast aboriginal actors in starring roles in their most famous film, Jedda (1955), and filming was done under difficult conditions on location in the Northern Territory. In this book they were admiring of those who still lived a traditional life, but quite derogatory about “half-castes” who they saw as giving the “full-blood abos” a bad name. The language is very dated – often cringe-worthy, but overall this is a very interesting record of life and travels in the outback during the 1950s.

I read this book as the 11th in my Classics Club Challenge, and also for the Goodreads Around the Year Challenge (#29 – an underrated book, a hidden gem or lesser-known book), and for the Goodreads Classics Challenge (#11 – non-fiction).