Meet author Rosamund Burton at Tamworth Library Saturday 9 March @ 2pm, as she discusses her latest book Whispering Wire – Tracing the Overland Telegraph Line through the Heart of Australia.
The 3200-kilometre-long Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin was completed 150 years ago in 1872. Rosamund traced the path of this largely forgotten strand of wire through the country’s vast desert interior to the flood-prone Top End.
Rosamund and her friend cycled the first 800 km from Adelaide to Farina, switched to a 4WD to Alice Springs and eventually by campervan to Darwin. This action-packed journey takes the author across the continent while listening to those who live in this harsh but beautiful country.
Rosamund Burton was born in Ireland and grew up in England before returning to Ireland when she was 18. She became an actress, performing at Dublin’s Gate and Gaiety Theatres, and in the film Educating Rita with Julie Walters and Michael Caine.
Her first book, Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers, is about following the ancient Irish pilgrim route, St Declan’s Way (Allen & Unwin 2011). She moved to Australia in the mid-1990s following her fascination with her mother’s stories of growing up in Australia. She writes for a range of newspapers and magazines and lives in Sydney with her husband Steve.
