Travels with Bertha: two years exploring Australia in a 1978 Ford Stationwagon

The Queensland drug dealer-turned-miner who had blown off all his fingers in repeated work accidents; the Adelaide Aborigine whose Irish uncle, in revenge for Captain Cook, claimed the territory of Britain for Australia from the top of Big Ben; the ex-alcoholic in Tasmania relieved that his bi-polar condition could be traced back to his direct ancestor, King George III; the dying man in the Kimberleys who had witnessed a haunting aboriginal dance gathering in 1925....

Paul Martin arrived in Sydney on a one-year working holiday visa with a backpack and a hefty bank loan.

Over the next two and a half years, he shared four flats in Sydney and travelled 30,000kms through both territories and all five states of Australia.

In Bertha, his trusty 1978 Ford Falcon station wagon, he picked up over a dozen nationalities and encountered many funny and intriguing individuals along the way.

Travels with Bertha is for anyone whose friends, loved ones, or who themselves have travelled to Australia, and for those interested in the dark history, the colourful characters or the startling beauty of this most fascinating of continents.