[The exact date of this manuscript is not known, though it was definitely written after 1948, when Edna Walling purchased land in Lorne, Victoria. Walling approached a number of publishers with this manuscript but always received rejections. This dedication page, which appears before the Foreword in the original manuscript, is annotated with a list of the various publishers who rejected the work, and the date the work was returned. What becomes clear is that Edna Walling was approaching publishers as late as March 1973, just a few months before her death in August that year.]