Frühstück mit Kängurus

The question of who the current Australian Prime Minister is or the latest political events in and around Canberra will leave most of us just as unanswered as our limited knowledge of Australian eating habits or the cultural matters of the country. One explanation for why this vast continent plays such a minor role in our public consciousness may be that Australia hardly makes headlines: it does not plunder the world's oceans, sell weapons to terrible despots, or grow cocaine in outrageous quantities. Australia is peaceful, stable, and good. But what is the real significance of this continent, which is considered the driest, flattest, hottest, least fertile, and most climatically aggressive of all inhabited continents – yet boasts an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals? What kind of country is it where constellations are upside down, flying foxes roam, and fish climb trees? To find out, Bill Bryson set out on a journey – first on the legendary Indian-Pacific railway from Sydney to Perth, and then to the major cities of Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Darwin.