Like most of Wrightson's books,Balyet is set in Australia. The story's events all occur within a small patch of hill country, apparently just a few miles' drive out from the safe, familiar city. Yet Jo's ventures into the vine-shaded pool, the rocky slopes, and the tangled gullies take her far, far away from the markers of civilization.

The ancient, lonely stretches of the island continent seem to loom just beyond the clearing and its camp. Balyet, as a creature from a time long past, can roam this vast, wild region which means only danger for her present-day counterpart. This fact, and the layers of legend and mystery woven through the landscape, make it more than just the background for a novel. The land is almost a separate presence here, without which the story would not take place at all.

At the same time this setting is described...