‘I’m sitting down to write the opening lines of this book a year to the day since my mum died. She is constantly in my thoughts, not just because I miss her terribly, but because she was the inspiration for this collection of stories about women who have come from very different places to make a new life in rural Australia.’

City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or another country to build a new future in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stand them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s, to the author’s own mother’s experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast, to the present day.

City Girl, Country Girl is a compelling and fascinating account of these women’s journeys as they struggle through personal tragedy, hardship and self-doubt with grace, humour, perseverance and more than a little hard work.

About the Author
Liz Harfull is passionate about telling the stories of regional Australia, its people, communities, history and traditions. An award-winning rural journalist and communicator, she grew up on a small farm near Mount Gambier, which has been in the family since the 1860s.

In 2006 Liz walked away from corporate life, as a director of a leading national public relations agency, to write books. Her leap of faith was rewarded two years later with The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, which became a surprise best-seller. Capturing the stories and traditions of South Australian country shows and show cooks, it even took her to Paris where it won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. Since then she has written two national best-sellers, Women of the Land and The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook, as well as Almost an Island: the Story of Robe, about her favourite season town on the windswept Limestone Coast.

Today Liz lives in the Adelaide Hills, juggling a busy writing career with travelling Australia to visit the places and meet the people that inspire her writing.