By: Brenda Niall

Paperback

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Growing up in suburban Perth in the 1920s, the two Durack girls were fascinated by tales of the pioneering past of their father and grandfather overlanding from Queensland in the 1880s and setting up four vast cattle stations in the remote north.

A year spent together on the stations in their early twenties ignited in the sisters a lifelong love of the Kimberley, along with a growing unease about the situation of the Aboriginal people employed there.

Through war, love affairs, children and eventual old age, the Duracks continued to write and paint – their closely intertwined creative lives always shaped by the enduring power of the Kimberley region.

With unprecedented access to hundreds of private family letters, unpublished memoirs, diaries and family papers, Brenda Niall gets to the heart of a uniquely Australian story that spans the twentieth century.

About the Author

Brenda Niall is one of Australia's foremost biographers. She is the author of four award-winning biographies, including her acclaimed accounts of the Boyd family.

In The Press

‘A rich portrait of two complex and inter-connected lives…And throughout is the marvellous incisive Niall ability to distil, to capture the essence of a situation or problem, to ask the penetrating questions, to display sympathy and empathy but never to shirk criticism or to be afraid of exposing frailty. The individual portraits are beautifully drawn and very nicely contrasted with both the sisters emerging as their own person but yet with much that is shared…The book breaks important new ground. It is celebratory but far from uncritical and it confronts complexity on every page.’
John Thompson

‘Brenda Niall has produced a graceful and perceptive biography of two extraordinary creative women. She treads carefully through the minefield of controversies about their family’s exploitation of Aboriginal labour, as well as their own interventions in indigenous art and politics. Her brief portraits of other members of the family, especially the two brothers who dedicated their lives to improving the land up north and their Lear-like father, are an additional bonus of this absorbing book.’
ABR

‘One thing you come to expect from a Brenda Niall biography is the unexpected. I approached her recent successful biography of Jesuit priest William Hackett expecting a pious and reverential read. Rather it was tough, lear-sighted and immensely readable. Her biography of the Durack sisters has these characteristics and more…

‘There is so much to admire and enjoy in this profoundly interesting biography. As a picture of Perth society in the first half of the 20th Century it is as good as anything I know. As a sympathetic portrait of the difficulty women as mothers had to be creative and absorbed in their word, it is profoundly moving. As a picture of a rare closeness between two sisters it is, if anything, enviable. Brenda Niall could not write a poor book. But this is, quite simply, one of her very best.’
Canberra Times

‘Niall explores with warmth a contradictory pair of sisters.’
Sunday Age

‘Using previously unpublished material, acclaimed biographer Brenda gives us a fascinating insight into a chapter of local history.’
Scoop

‘With access to letters, diaries, memoirs and family papers Niall, a highly regarded biographer, has written an accessible biography of two remarkable Australian women who did much for the Kimberley and the people.’
Illawarra Mercury

‘The hold the north had over the two women, even in their old age, is tangible.’
Good Reading

‘Despite the deep sense of melancholy running through the book, True North is a fascinating look into a life that no longer exists. Mary and Elizabeth had to fight some pretty heavy prejudices, not to mention the distraction of raising young children, to continue with their art, and True North is a fitting tribute to these two feisty women.’
Melbourne Weekly

‘I have read other stories of outback life in Australia, but none like this one.’
Otago Daily Times

‘A celebration of place as well as two extraordinary women.’
Irish Echo

‘Brenda Niall has written perceptively about the different but complementary personalities of Mary and Elizabeth. She has done the two sisters proud in this splendid and informative work.’
Catholic Weekly

‘Award winning biographer Brenda Niall honours the Durack sisters’ legacy with this engaging story of their lives. A good one for book clubs.'
Weekly Review

The north claimed Bet Durack in 1933, as it had claimed Mary. The next eight months at Argyle Downs gave her a place in the daily life of the station. She learned its rituals, took part in its daily work, listened to stockmen's stories, watched corroborees whenever invited to the station camp, and above all she imprinted on her memory the colours of the Kimberley. Back in Perth during the wet season, she felt that the meaning of home had changed. The months passed slowly until she and Mary set out again for the stations in April 1934. Her letters home show her exhilaration at the return, and a comic sense which makes the most of the journey and its mishaps. Travelling from Wyndham to Argyle Downs, after the week on the Koolinda, they stopped first at Ivanhoe Station. Only fifty miles from the port, Ivanhoe was the most accessible of the properties, but in Bet's exuberant account of their journey, every mile was an adventure:

Well I don't think there was any stop between Goose Hill and Saltwater Creek but we stopped properly when we got there and Reg held forth long and lustily on the utter irresponsibility of taking car through water thigh deep. Eventually he decided to take Dad's car first. This meant unpacking it. Mary and I set to work with our usual ardour and dragged out the swags, suitcases, apples, oranges etc etc. Meanwhile Jack [Kilfoyle] was testing the bottom again. ' Oh dear, dear, dear Reg. It'll be a good car that that gets us through this Reg. Oh dear, dear, dear, almost up to a man's waist, eh Reg?' Reg places the car gingerly at the water's edge. 'I think it best to rush it, son' says Dad. Reg of course thinks the opposite and of course says 'yes'. However in low gear with all hands pushing we deposited it safely on the opposite bank. Then started a long procession of crossings and recrossings with the swags and suitcases and apples and oranges etc. Reg carefully bandaged the carburettor of his car and with a look of infinite misery on his face turned its nose to the water. 'Mind you, I don't think she'll do it'. Anyway with an extra push, she did. We all patted ourselves on the back and wrung ourselves out and rubbed our sweaty faces.

ISBN: 9781921758928
ISBN-10: 1921758929
Audience: Tertiary; University or College
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 272
Published: 21st March 2012
Dimensions (cm): 23.0 x 16.5