Call of the Outback: The Remarkable Story of Ernestine Hill, Nomad, Adventurer and Trailblazer

by Marianne van Velzen

Long before Robyn Davidson wrote Tracks, the extraordinary Ernestine Hill was renowned for her intrepid travels across Australia's vast outback.After the birth of her illegitimate son, Ernestine Hill abandoned her comfortable urban life as a journalist for a nomadic one, writing about this country's vast interior and bringing the outback into the popular imagination of Australians.Throughout the 1930s Ernestine's hugely popular stories about Australia's remotest regions appeared in newspapers and journals around the nation. She still remains famous for her bestselling books The Great Australian Loneliness, The Territory, Flying Doctor Calling and My Love Must Wait.Call of the Outback provides a vivid portrait of Ernestine, from the early brilliance she showed as a child in Brisbane to her later life. In particular it evokes Ernestine's larger-than-life personality, the exotic landscapes she explored and the remarkable characters she met on her travels.

Genres: Memoir, Biography

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2016

About the author

Marianne van Velzen is a Dutch journalist who lived in Australia for many years. She is the author of Call of the Outback, the story of Ernestine Hill, and Missing in Action, about a father's desperate search for his son's remains after World War I.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good yarn, if you are not bothered by gross inaccuracies in geography. She has not checked her so called facts about places and their distances apart. A pity, it had potential and a very interesting subject.

[Shreedevi Gurumurty · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the birth of her illegitimate son, Ernestine Hill abandoned her comfortable urban life as a journalist for a nomadic one, writing about this country's vast interior and bringing the outback into the popular imagination of Australians.Throughout the 1930s Ernestine's hugely popular stories about Australia's remotest regions appeared in newspapers and journals around the nation. She still remains famous for her bestselling books The Great Australian Loneliness, The Territory, Flying Doctor Calling and My Love Must Wait. This book provides a vivid portrait of Ernestine, from the early brilliance she showed as a child in Brisbane to her later life. In particular it evokes Ernestine's larger-than-life personality, the exotic landscapes she explored and the remarkable characters she met on her travels.Ernestine Hill (21 January 1899 — 21 August 1972) was an Australian journalist, travel writer and novelist.Born Mary Ernestine Hemmings in Rockhampton, Queensland, she attended All Hallows' School in Brisbane, and then Stott & Hoare's Business College, Brisbane.On completing her studies, she worked briefly in the public service, and then for Smith's Weekly, Sydney, first as the secretary to the literary editor, J. F. Archibald, and later as a journalist and subeditor.In 1924 her son Robert was born.Rumoured to be R.C. Packer's son, although never publicly acknowledged. Ernestine assumed the surname Hill. During the 1930s she travelled extensively around Australia, writing as she went, primarily for Associated Newspapers.Hill then worked for the ABC from 1940 from 1944, on the A.B.C. Weekly and as a commissioner.After resigning from the ABC, she resumed her travels, but published little from her work during this period. She was awarded a Commonwealth Literary Fund fellowship in 1959.However, while this provided her with a small pension, her final years were characterised by financial and health problems.She could also be controversial. For example, her reporting of a gold strike at the Granites in the Northern Territory in 1931 contributed to financial ruin for some and was branded irresponsible.

[OliviaF · Rating 5 out of 5]

There needs to be more books like this that inspire and encourage exploration of this beautiful country. The author has done a fabulous job of weaving facts with conjecture about the adventures of Ernestine Hill. Very engaging and fluid style of writing that takes you to the very essence of the protagonist's spirit and the things she witnessed and experienced.

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read about Brisbane raised writer, Ernestine Hill and her social circle, including Daisy Bates, the original Packer Family, and Mary Durack.
Who can say what it was that kept drawing her back to pre-tourist outback places? But she was certainly a woman who never settled and never established a conventional life or home.

Unfortunately, this is not well written, it kind of jolts along, but a pretty good first attempt if that is what it is.

[Ruth Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting life that I could relate to, in that Ernestine felt the call to be out on the road away from cities. She appears to have differed from me in that she became quite stressed with thumbing rides, and not knowing where she would sleep or eat. These issues never bothered me. Her constant smoking cigarettes appalled me. However, imo, the author presented a clear picture of her life and kept a good pace going.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book about the life of Australian author Ernestine Hill who wrote "My Love Must Wait". Hill was a journalist who went to the outback before it was “fashionable,” to collect many stories. She wrote for different newspapers after travelling to many parts of the outback in every mainland state. She also witnessed flooding in Launceston, Tasmania. She knew the Duracks and also Daisy Bates. A fascinating woman.

[Linda Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the life of Ernestine Hill, writer and nomad. In particular her interactions with Archibald, Packer, Daisy Bates, First Nation people’s and her movements through the interior of Australia in the 30’s and 40’s. Pretty gutsy.