Part I
There was a man who had a cross and his name was Macauley. He put Australia at his feet, he said, in the only way he knew how. His boots spun the dust from its roads and his body waded its streams. The black lines on the map, and the red, they knew him well. He built his fires in a thousand places and slept on the banks of rivers. The grass grew over his tracks, but he knew where they were when he came again."
One of my favourite books by D'arcy Niland, "The Shiralee", was made into a movie, first in 1957, starring Peter Finch, and the 1987 remake with Bryan Brown. They keep disappearing from YouTube but I've just found a more 'permanent' copy in two parts on www.archive.org.
Part II
While both film version follow faithfully the storyline, there's nothing like reading the book itself. Here it is and you can read it online here.
"He had two swags, one of them with legs and a cabbage tree hat, and that one was the main difference between him and others who take to the road, following the sun for their bread and butter. Some have dogs. Some have horses. Some have women. And they have them as mates and companions, or for this reason and that, all of some use. But with Macaulay it was this way: he had a child and the only reason he had it was because he was stuck with it." [continue here]
P.S. It's your lucky day: the original 1957 black-and-white film starring the incomparable Peter Finch is also on www.archive.org - click here.
