Books with author David Colby

Artist David Cox recalls what it was like to be a child during World War Two, and his warm observations reveal a resilient quintessential Australian spirit. A companion to his much loved picture book The Road to Goonong.That morning, something important happened. It began with a great rumble that came in through our classroom window and rumbled on and on. We all ran out into the school yard and hung on the fence and gazed in wonder. An endless line of trucks and jeeps and tanks and weapons carriers came around the corner and along our street, all of them with big white stars on their sides. There were big cannons, too. Soldiers in the trucks waved to us. We wouldn't have guessed there were so many trucks in the whole wide world. They rumbled right through the morning break and when we came out for lunch they still rolled by. Then they were gone, heading north to where the war was being fought.

A glorious story of an Australian bush childhood—growing up on the family farm with horses and animals, eccentric neighbors and a loving family The road to Goonong was just a pair of wheel tracks packed down by buggies and drays that had traveled that way over the years. It ran through forest and passed by farmhouses and the hut where the Schmidt boys lived. Goonong, our farm, was at the end of the road. We had beef cattle and dairy cattle, and there was plenty of room to play and plenty of horses to ride. It was a time when timber-cutters felled big ironbarks and blacksmiths' hammers rang out from the forge. The skies were always blue over Goonong. With laid-back charm, bush humor, and a spirit of optimism, David Cox captures the joy and freedom, as well as the harsh reality of farming life during the Great Depression.