The author, with a hole in his soul from the impending sale of the family ranch, and recently released from active status with the US Marine Corps, immigrates to Australia in 1965 and plunges into the extremes of Australian outback adventure.

An early attempt to be the first to explore the untracked wilderness of the Gordon River basin in Tasmania from its headwaters to the sea led to a long-term interest in the wilds of that state. The author visited and photographed Lake Pedder just before the Tasmanian government dammed the Gordon River and flooded the lake, destroying two amazing and unique wilderness features at once. During that time the author obtained an IUCN-WWF project grant to determine the status of the Tasmanian Tiger and spent a significant time in the wilderness looking for tracks and sign of that presumably extinct marsupial predator.

The author had numerous close encounters with sharks on spear fishing expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef and in the cold waters of the Archipelago d' Recherche. The author and his companions also had numerous encounters with deadliest snakes on the planet and with the notorious man-eating saltwater crocodiles of the Northern Territory.

In the Northern Territory (Crocodile Dundee country) the author was taken under the wing of the territory's most outrageous characters where he learned the dangerous trade of "bull catching", capturing wild scrub bulls and water buffalos in the open range wilderness. This experience reminded him of what it would have been like in Texas immediately after the Civil War ("Lonesome Dove" days) only the author, in bare feet and worn out cutoffs, used Toyotas instead of horses and threw them down by the tail instead of roping them.

The narrative provides unusual insights into the indiginous natives of Australia, with whom the author lived and worked, and into the colorful outback characters with who he shared this experience. The narrative ends with the poignant return of the author to Texas in 1972.