Songlines and Fault Lines

Visitors to the Red Centre come looking for the real Australia. What they find is both beautiful and disturbing: wilderness, desire, an ancient philosophy of home, and the confusing countenance of the Australian frontier, a meeting place of black and white, ancient and modern. Songlines and Fault Lines explores the stories of six epic walks that shaped a nation: a journey of Aboriginal Dreamtime ancestors; John Stuart's south-north trek across the continent; anthropologist TGH Strehlow's childhood journey down the Finke River; conservationist Arthur Groom's reimagining of the country's heart as tourist play-ground; Bruce Chatwin's seminal travel text about the Centre, and Eleanor Hogan's portrait of Alice Springs, a troubled town. Retracing the legendary pathways and stories of the Australian centre, Glenn Morrison finds new answers to age-old queries.