An Australian Pioneer Biography
This is the heartwarming true story of two pioneering women who became heroes of their day.
1940s Australian rural and city culture comes to life through the unforgettable experiences of the courageous Methodist Deaconess Nursing Sisters in Angels of Augustus.
In 1946, Marjorie Wilkinson and Ethel Helyar arrived in the Australian outback town of Brewarrina with nothing but their district bags, authority to perform marriages, baptisms and burials – a rarity for women of the era – and an ambulance named Augustus.
In a heart-rending drought, they began the first free-to-patient mobile health care the region had ever seen and became living legends remembered through the generations.
Patrolling a remote region of 35,000 square miles, Marjorie and Ethel crossed state, race and religious divides on a pioneering journey that both united and challenged their personal lives.
Yet their belief in a compassionate cause and their sense of humour overcame severe hardship in the most unusual of circumstances.
Purchase your copy of ‘Angels of Augustus’
Angels of Augustus is a high quality soft cover book containing 464 pages and 154 period photos.
Title:
Angels of Augustus - Pioneers of the Living Inland
ISBN: 9 780646 465296
Price: $29.95 plus p&p
This book is available from book stores across Australia. You can also order a copy directly from the distributor through our online order form.
Publisher
 Elk & Ice BooksPO Box 1043 Noosaville DC, QLD, 4566 Australia |
Email: elkandice@westnet.com.au Telephone: International Area 61 Marketing - mobile: 042-106-0919 Enquiries - mobile: 041-397-1945 |
Australian Distributor
Dennis Jones and Associates Pty Ltd, Melbourne
A TRUE ACCOUNT AS COMPELLING AND AMUSING AS THE OUTBACK ITSELF
“There are some books whose pages turn over by themselves. This is one such book. I find it breathtaking in its action. The audacity of the women who established the outback nursingservice, in an era when women were so restricted, is amazing. It is a gripping read.”
Rev Hon Dr Gordon Moyes, AC, MLC (foreword to book)
“Angels is a delightful and completely unassuming insight into the working life of two young women in some of the harshest and most remote regions of our bush. Told with candidacy, humour and a well-honed talent for keeping the action rolling, the story is one which needed to be told to the present generation, and one which cant fail to intrigue and amuse the reader.”
Shelley Ross, Australian Flying (May / June 2007)
“Stephanie Somerville has produced a remarkable account of the first two women to be deployed … This remarkable book … is a wonderful social history of an era that has long passed.”
Dr Keith Suter,
Radio 2GB, ‘Sunrise’ Network 7, Wesley Centre, aired: RADIO 2GB