Arthur Upfield is internationally known for his 29 crime novels featuring Bony, the Aboriginal Detective. In these thirteen stories written for Walkabout magazine between 1934 and 1949 and published in book form for the first time, readers will travel well beyond the cities, aided by maps and original photographs – through Cooper’s Creek, visiting Lake Frome in South Australia, patrol the rabbit-proof fence in the West, pearling in Broome or go angling for Swordfish at Bermagui. Many of these stories give colour and detail to his more celebrated novels using the same settings as his crime novels. Another describes the Australian Geographical Society’s 5000 mile venture from Perth to the Kimberleys and back, which was led by Upfield in 1948. Truly a book to remind us of the value of the “walkabout” – “a journey (originally on foot) undertaken by the Australian Aboriginal in order to live in the traditional manner.
