In 1910, with the publication of Mary Grant Bruce's A Little Bush Maid, young Australian readers were introduced to the world of Billabong, the cattle station where Norah Linton and her older brother, Jim, along with their widowed father, David Linton, play out lives full of adventure, comradeship, and the work of running a large and prosperous farm. Billabong is not so much a setting for adventure as a utopian space that represents an idealized version of life in the bush. Similarly, the Lintons constitute an ideal bush family; Norah and Jim work alongside their father as "mates" and spend their leisure time riding, exploring, fishing, and engaging in a series of adventures. From A Little Bush Maid to Billabong Riders in 1942, fifteen Billabong books were published, tracing the lives of Norah, Jim, and Mr. Linton through World War I, the marriages of Norah and Jim, and the birth...