Hard Country, Hard Men: In the Footsteps of Gregory

Augustus Charles Gregory, Australia's greatest explorer, left a powerful narrative of his 1855-6 expedition to northern Australia - but that was never enough for Kieran Kelly, Sydney stockbroker, who hero-worshipped Gregory from boyhood. This book tells how Kelly turned an extraordinary dream into hard, backbreaking reality, to take men and packhorses along the same dangerous and exciting trail that Gregory blazed 144 years before. Hard Country, Hard Men tells the story of his achievement - a story of toughness, humour, courage and ingenuity, as a gritty, sometimes sceptical group of today's men of the outback battle the same unforgiving landscape. This gripping account of their adventure is skilfully interwoven with the vivid narrative of Gregory's expedition, as day by day we follow both parties, separated by time but united by place. In this book, written in the very footsteps of Gregory, heroism and passion combine to create a classic of the Australian outback.