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Back Roads
A road trip around Australia, discovering towns and communities outside the mainstream - and the colourful inhabitants whose grit and humour will uplift and inspire you.
Discover the resilient and inspiring people who live outside the big Australian cities - indeed off the beaten track altogether. Defined by their strength and humility, these are characters whose grit and good humour will uplift and inspire. Meet strong women like Joan Sinclair, still riding horses in her 80s; Heather Jones from the Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls; and Diane Reeves, a transgender former dairy farmer, shearer and truck driver. Visit historic places, such as Pine Creek, built on the sweat of Chinese workers, and Marree, where cameleers forged new paths far from home in this remote part of the world. 'They're proud communities like my hometown, full of surprises, fight and spirit,' says Heather Ewart, Back Roads presenter. For anyone curious about what lies beyond, Back Roads will transport you from your city doorstep and show you a land of surprise and determination.
Discover the resilient and inspiring people who live outside the big Australian cities - indeed off the beaten track altogether. Defined by their strength and humility, these are characters whose grit and good humour will uplift and inspire. Meet strong women like Joan Sinclair, still riding horses in her 80s; Heather Jones from the Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls; and Diane Reeves, a transgender former dairy farmer, shearer and truck driver. Visit historic places, such as Pine Creek, built on the sweat of Chinese workers, and Marree, where cameleers forged new paths far from home in this remote part of the world. 'They're proud communities like my hometown, full of surprises, fight and spirit,' says Heather Ewart, Back Roads presenter. For anyone curious about what lies beyond, Back Roads will transport you from your city doorstep and show you a land of surprise and determination.
288 pages, Paperback
Published December 17, 2019
9 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 14, 2019
An accompaniment to the TV series, this transitions across into a book very well. Concentrating on the diverse range of people in small regional towns throughout Australia, we get a little bit of insight into the everyday issues, good and bad, that confront people. Easy to pick up and put down, it would make good holiday reading and inspire some nomadic travel.
July 11, 2019
Wasn't near as interesting as some of the Australiana stories I have read. It did make me want vanilla slice though!
April 11, 2022
The literary version of the Australian ABC Television series 'Back Roads'. Short stories about towns visited by ABC journalist Heather Ewart. Ewart gives a lovely rendition of characters, history, local heros, and local traditions from towns right across the country.
January 6, 2019
A lovely whimsical look at small rural towns and some of their interesting characters. A nice adjunct of the television program. Also updates some of the earlier episodes and exploits.
August 21, 2025
I enjoyed meeting some of the characters, but feel like we were only given a short time to read their story before moving on to another. I enjoyed the variety of characters but I feel the format better suits the tv show that it's based on.
December 3, 2019
A nice look into some familiar stories from the show
July 12, 2023
'Back Roads' the TV series is an enjoyable program produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that has been running for about eight years now. Dedicated to exploring the small bush towns outside the big cities and their surrounds the show makes a very solid effort at trying to capture the spirit of these places and their people. Often there are challenges or problems at the core of the stories however there is also plenty of humour and resilience. And that is very much the same for this tie-in book.
Consisting of short profiles of key people met in a few of the selected towns visited in the show 'Back Roads' the book also provides a bit of a follow up to the initial stories thanks to it being published a few years after the broadcast of the original episodes. This is a nice addition to the individual narrative of the programs however, and herein lies a bit of a problem with the book, the reader will be more engaged if they come to the text having seen the program beforehand. Yes, the book has some degree of an independent value away from the TV show, but it doesn't do enough.
Another issue that arose in reading the book was that with the focus on specific individuals in each town meant that the town's communities became backgrounds to the individuals. In some cases this was fine but often the people that serve as the central issue of a town's chapter detracted from a more holistic vision of their locale. Of course it is hard for a book limited by its very mode (words and pages) to provide as immersive experience as a TV show. Yet it might have been more engaging for the reader if more was said about the overarching context of the places where those who people this book live.
It was also a bit disappointing to see a certain amount of imbalance in the choice of towns and people that were featured in the book. There were six chapters dedicated to Victorian towns, five for Queensland, four for South Australian locations, three each for WA and Tasmania, one for the NT and two for NSW. Frankly the emphasis on Victorian locations and lack of coverage for NSW was a disappointment. Surely the editors could have been more equitable in the distribution of locations that formed the books contents.
Having noted these concerns there is still pleasure to be had from this book. The yarns about growing huge pumpkins in Dunally Tasmania, helping veterans with seaside holidays in Robe SA, vanilla slice competitions in Birchip, Muslim immigrant experiences in Katanning WA and running marathons on Thursday Island are just some of examples. Of course that which comes from the book that can't be discovered by watching the TV show is minimal. The prose is very readable and the photos that supplement the text are fine, yet at the end of the day if one relies on 'Back Roads' on TV for your engagement with the book's personae and their stories then it won't be that much of a loss.
This is not a bad book but it is a bit disappointing. If the authors and publishers had diverted more from the original content or added even more content to their original stories they might have been commended for their work, Instead this is a merely satisfactory TV tie-in.
Consisting of short profiles of key people met in a few of the selected towns visited in the show 'Back Roads' the book also provides a bit of a follow up to the initial stories thanks to it being published a few years after the broadcast of the original episodes. This is a nice addition to the individual narrative of the programs however, and herein lies a bit of a problem with the book, the reader will be more engaged if they come to the text having seen the program beforehand. Yes, the book has some degree of an independent value away from the TV show, but it doesn't do enough.
Another issue that arose in reading the book was that with the focus on specific individuals in each town meant that the town's communities became backgrounds to the individuals. In some cases this was fine but often the people that serve as the central issue of a town's chapter detracted from a more holistic vision of their locale. Of course it is hard for a book limited by its very mode (words and pages) to provide as immersive experience as a TV show. Yet it might have been more engaging for the reader if more was said about the overarching context of the places where those who people this book live.
It was also a bit disappointing to see a certain amount of imbalance in the choice of towns and people that were featured in the book. There were six chapters dedicated to Victorian towns, five for Queensland, four for South Australian locations, three each for WA and Tasmania, one for the NT and two for NSW. Frankly the emphasis on Victorian locations and lack of coverage for NSW was a disappointment. Surely the editors could have been more equitable in the distribution of locations that formed the books contents.
Having noted these concerns there is still pleasure to be had from this book. The yarns about growing huge pumpkins in Dunally Tasmania, helping veterans with seaside holidays in Robe SA, vanilla slice competitions in Birchip, Muslim immigrant experiences in Katanning WA and running marathons on Thursday Island are just some of examples. Of course that which comes from the book that can't be discovered by watching the TV show is minimal. The prose is very readable and the photos that supplement the text are fine, yet at the end of the day if one relies on 'Back Roads' on TV for your engagement with the book's personae and their stories then it won't be that much of a loss.
This is not a bad book but it is a bit disappointing. If the authors and publishers had diverted more from the original content or added even more content to their original stories they might have been commended for their work, Instead this is a merely satisfactory TV tie-in.
October 20, 2023
An enjoyable reminder of some of the places the TV show, Back Roads, has been and the stories they have told. Some editing needed, but very entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews