No Beating Around the Bush by Val Oldfield as told by Ashley Mallett
The dust, the flies, the dingoes are the only company, sometimes for weeks, the occasional crackle of a voice over a wireless radio from far-flung places - this was the world of Val Oldfield for 10 years when living on Australia's infamous Birdsville Track. A 500 kilometre stretch of gibbers, dust and sand - the track traverses the driest part of the driest state of the driest continent on earth.
Val Oldfield was flung into this world as a naive newly-wed young woman from an Adelaide sea-side suburb in post-war boom years of Australia. This book traces her life from childhood years, when she wriggled her little toes in the sand at Semaphore beach, to her teenage years as a modern young 1950's miss about town, to the alien environment of The Track and to Val's years beyond.