Bushwomen and children, drovers missionaries, rogues, miners, navvies, postmistresses and seamen -- the heroes of our Outback come in all guises, from all parts of the continent, from the past and the present. Outback Australia was, and remains, a hard fierce land that posed challenges that only the bravest pioneers could meet. Patsy Adam-Smith has learned the stories of some of our Outback Heroes in her own encounters with them,; others she has uncovered in newspapers and journals, some in the writings of Outback chroniclers like Henry Lawson, Mary Gilmore, and Mrs Aeneas Gunn.