Jill Ker Conway

Jill Key Conway (1934-) was born in New South Wales in the Australian outback to a family of four—her mother, father and two brothers, Bob and Barry. Jill grew up "in the bush" on her parents' sheep station known as Coorain, after which Road from Coorain is named. She was a bright young girl, adored her older brothers, was eager to learn from her mother and dutifully helped her father with whatever help she could from an early age. Despite the fact that Jill did not see a girl her age until age seven, she lived a happy and fulfilled life until a drought largely destroyed Coorain's sheep herds and her father killed himself.

After three years of Jill's mother trying to maintain Coorain, the Ker family was forced to move into Sydney, where life eventually settled into a normal pace, despite the fact...