Gone Bush

by Ellen Kettle

F. P. Leonard, 1967, [First Edition], [Signed], black and white photographic plates, illustrated endpapers, photographic frontispiece, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, Signed by author on title page, minor edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing to edge and corners, stamp to half title page, previous owners gift inscription to facing title page, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping creasing and chipping, closed tear ton front, tears to back (see photographs)

“France, Spain, Portugal and Italy together would fit comfortably within the Northern Territory, one-sixth of Australia’s total area, and much that is written about it quite justifiably take s the reader for an “armchair walkabout” through country changed but little since the dawn of time.  Ellen Kettle, still an enthusiast for the Territory scene, is concerned more with people, aboriginal and European, who are introduced in this entertaining, revealing and warmly understanding “talkabout”.  As a nurse with the Commonwealth Department of Health, Sister Kettle visited tribes of which most will have never heard the names.  She had to find and care for the sick, after first winning the confidence of the aborigines.  Leprosy; epidemics; childbirths in primitive, far-off camps; the wounds of tribal fight or private feud … even women participated in this way; sorry cuts; all these and numerous other ills have come her way for treatment.  Sister Kettle had “gone bush” in the literal sense of the words.  Thrown on her own resources she has made many a march, at “blackfellow speed” with tribes-men just a little scornful of a white fellow pace.  Her experiences with aborigines as patients, helpers, guides or simply as people she was endeavouring to lead to a better way of life, reveal how well she succeeded in overcoming their natural fears and suspicions...”