Speak to the Earth

In this book the authoress of Australia’s Alps descends from the mountains to her station home at their foot, where work must be done if war is to be won.

This may sound a less romantic subject, but it makes an even more absorbing story. Towong is a station on the upper Murray, a little kingdom of fine horses, cattle and sheep. There, as all over the country, the best of the district’s young manhood have gone to war, many never to return; but the work they have left is more vital than ever to the nation.

Elyne Mitchell is one of those women who have undertaken the work of a dozen men. In blazing heat, in rain or snow, the never-ending tasks must be performed – shearing, drafting, mustering, dipping, treating fly-strike and foot-rot, and waging the relentless war against rabbits and soil erosion. There is the heavier burden of loneliness, too, for a woman whose husband is a prisoner of war. But the predominating note of the book is one of courage, cheerfulness, and hope, in the great tradition of the Australian countryside.

It is an inspiring story, not only because it tell of a gallant fight and an invincible spirit, but because it is rich with the vitality and beauty of the and. Elyne Mitchell has a deep feeling for Australian landscape, and has painted in unforgettable strokes the wild loveliness of the upper Murray region. Throughout the book is an unfailing sense of the spiritual refreshment that comes from contact with the earth and with the strong and simple things that endure through the chaos of civilisation in flames.