I’m the sort of person who likes to read books that are relevant when I travel. I like to read novels or autobiographies in context, mindful that as a tourist visiting a place of historical value, this place may have been experienced so differently, often tragically, by others. That’s not to say you’ll find me ploughing through some historical tome on the beach, just that I find it adds a new dimension to travel. I visited Kimberley on safari recently; a northern region of Australia’s largest and least densely populated state, Western Australia. It was wild (literally) and I urge anyone to make the colossal effort to get up there, as it’s a world class destination. Though despite being colonised for over 100 years now, the roads are still mostly unsealed and the World Famous Gibb River Road could rival the deepest, remotest parts of Cambodia for road condition…

It is with this reference to the incredible roughness of this remote and stunning region that I recommend Kings in Grass Castles – the story of the first pioneer colonisers to cross the immense Australian landscape with its harsh, unforgiving climate, and trail-blaze the tracks between isolated towns, outposts and stations in the pursuit of developing a continent, discovering its rich resources and launching industries that have helped to make Australia what it is today.

It is predominantly the story of Patsy Durack, grandfather to the author Mary Durack, who was an astoundingly resourceful and business-savvy man who shipped his family from Ireland in 1852 before they all starved in the famine. Initially drawn to gold prospecting while his brother started as manual labourer for a farm, over time with their initiative and courage they ‘founded a pioneering dynasty and built a cattle empire across the great stretches of Australia’. For decades they rode tirelessly for tens of thousands of kilometers, deeper and deeper into the unknown territories; tracing back rivers and mountain ranges some of which still bear their names. They drove thousands of cattle across this inhospitable terrain carving out new tracks, seeking out new markets, constantly in trepidation of drought, cattle blights and ticks, attack from the Aboriginals, the cruel sun and malarial fever in some of the remotest regions of the continent.

It is a history of the pastoral industry, and a biography of an incredible family written from their journals and business accounts. You might imagine that it would make heavy reading but I can assure you that despite being intensely packed with factual information it is written in an anecdotal style and is completely and utterly absorbing. While I would strongly recommend anyone planning to go to Kimberley to take it with them, I would also recommend this to anyone who is interested in how this great country was colonised and what it was like to live in a realm that had yet to be mapped and defined, the sheer size of it entirely unfathomable. My only regret is that I read this post-trip in Perth, Australia while my mind roamed back to the tranquil watering holes and rocky creekbeds of Kimberley and ignited a longing to return and revisit the land of Patsy Durack.

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