MOTHER LOVE

Robyn Davidson's solo desert trek made her famous 46 years ago, setting the course for her extraordinary life. But before that, her mum's suicide shaped the woman she would become.

- SUSAN HORSBURGH

At the front door of an old stone house, a faded fabric mobile swings from a lemon tree. Hanging from it are a few bedraggled camels, hinting at the occupant inside, but the warm, smiling woman who emerges seems nothing like the fierce, haughty 20-something she used to be.

Robyn Davidson made headlines around the world 46 years ago as the daring young “Camel Lady” who trekked 2700km across the Australian desert, from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, with only her dog, Diggity, and four camels for company. She went on to immortalise that eightmonth odyssey in her acclaimed 1980 memoir, Tracks, and the international bestseller hasn’t been out of print since; 10 years ago, it even scored the big-screen treatment with Mia Wasikowska in the starring role.

Today, in the renovated Gold Rush-era hotel that Robyn has called home for the past decade, there are pointers to that life-changing adventure all over the house: an Aboriginal dot painting depicting the desert spot where Robyn had to shoot her beloved Diggity after the dog ate dingo bait; photographs of her time camel-training in Alice Springs; even an eight-month-old, newly adopted black kelpie called Diggity 2.