Visitors to the Red Centre come looking for the real Australia, but find
a place both beautiful and disturbing. There is wilderness, desire and
an Aboriginal philosophy of home. But there is also the confusing
countenance of the Australian frontier, a meeting place between black
and white, ancient and modern.
Songlines and Fault Lines explores the Red Centre through the eyes of
those who have walked it, in six remarkable stories that have shaped our
nation. It follows Aboriginal Dreamtime Ancestors along a songline,
trudges with John McDouall Stuart as he crosses the continent, and walks
the Finke River in the footsteps of anthropologist T.G.H. Strehlow. It
keeps pace with conservationist Arthur Groom as he reimagines the
country's heart as tourist playground, ponders a philosophy of walking
with British travel writer Bruce Chatwin, and then strolls the
grog-troubled streets of Alice Springs with Eleanor Hogan.
Retracing time-worn pathways and stories of Australia's centre, Glenn
Morrison finds fresh answers to age-old queries.