'When Fred Ward, better known in Australian history and legend as Captain Thunderbolt, swam to his freedom from Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, none of the little community scattered about the goldfield of Hanging Rock, far away to the north, lost any sleep over the event....all these and others found their lives changed because their paths crossed Thunderbolt's, as with his devoted half-caste wife the outlaw ranged the lonely roads and trackless mountains of the north.' (Publisher's blurb).
