City Girl, Country Girl The Inspiring True Stories of Courageous Women Forging New Lives in the Australian Bush

"I’m sitting down to write the opening lines of this book a year to the day since my mum died. She is constantly in my thoughts, not just because I miss her terribly, but because she was the inspiration for this collection of stories about women who have come from very different places to make a new life in rural Australia." City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or another country to build a new future in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stand them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s, to the author’s own mother’s experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast, to the present day. City Girl, Country Girl is a compelling and fascinating account of these women’s journeys as they struggle through personal tragedy, hardship, and self-doubt with grace, humor, perseverance, and more than a little hard work.

Liz Harfull is passionate about telling the stories of regional Australia, its people, communities, history, and traditions. An award-winning rural journalist and communicator, in 2006 she walked away from corporate life, as a director of a leading national public relations agency, to write books. Her leap of faith was rewarded two years later with The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, which became a surprise bestseller and won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. She is also the author of Women of the Land, The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook, and Almost an Island: the Story of Robe.