Our past hangs in the leaves of a family tree, rustling in the breezes of a hundred summers, whispering stories of heartbreak and happiness through as many winters. Both Reg and I have links to outback Queensland through our ancestors. Reg's mother was born in Charleville and her mother was born on Talavera Station, my maternal grandmother was born in Longreach and several generations on both sides of my paternal grandfather's family settled and worked in areas such as Charters Towers and Torrens Creek. The 1800s and early 1900s in outback Queensland must have been a difficult time for these families coming from Ireland and Switzerland, but they showed grit and courage, living and dying in the harshest of conditions.

With the luxury of time now available to us we are taking a journey out west through these places, to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors, to explore the places where they forged new lives, to breathe the air they breathed beneath the stars they saw and to see where they raised their families to whom we owe our existence.

The car is packed and we are off tomorrow, travelling in far greater luxury than the bullocks and drays and horses provided to our forefathers, less fearful than perhaps they were, but every bit as excited and full of anticipation.