Back to Billabong

Two children flee the fog and cruelty of post-war London for the sun-baked promise of Australia. Bob and Tommy Rainham escape their father’s indifference and a tyrannical stepmother to start fresh with the Lintons at Billabong, a world of dusty roads, wide skies, and the chance to belong. But the Australian outback offers no easy salvation: a year of brutal drought and devastating bushfires tests everything the Rainhams thought they knew about survival, sacrifice, and what it truly means to make a home. This is a story of starting over, raw, hopeful, and steeped in the beauty and danger of the Australian landscape. Bruce writes with an economist’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s heart, capturing both the hardships and the fierce joy of building a life from nothing.