Kristin Weidenbach

This is the memoir of Alison Brown, the story of the family who created and still manage the oldest Australian owned and run pearling company in the country. The story begins in the 1960s with Alison as a 19-year-old girl who fell in love with the remote tropical Cygnet Bay, on the Dampier peninsula north of Broome. She returned there to marry Bruce and settle into life with him there in a paperbark hut with no electricity or running water. Alison raised her family, helped establish the show more school, grew vegetables, dried pearl meat, balanced books, did the weather forecasting, expelled unwanted snakes from the toilet, and often managed the business, community and farm while Bruce was at sea. It is a story of courage and persistence, tempered by humour, a sense of adventure and a can-do attitude. show less

I didn't get far into the first chapter. Maybe I'm too much of an impatient reader, but I was very bored.

This book tells the life of this intrepid, determined and oft-times irreverent pioneering Australian renowned as one of our nation's greatest geologists. By the age of 30 Reg had discovered the oldest fossils in the world and some of its deepest under-sea canyons. By the time he was 50, Reg had driven the first vehicle across the Simpson Desert and crossed the continent from north, south, east and west. He has also launched Arkaroola Wildlife Sanctuary.

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