This is an absorbing account of the life from the 1930s of a New Zealander, 'Cat,' who so much enjoyed her primary school she decided at the age of six to become a teacher. This she did until the 1980s when she left a small New Zealand with few fearsome creatures for a large Australia with large, often fearsome wildlife, to join 'Min' for a very different way of life in Western Australia.

How different she soon discovered. The purchase of 'Nardie,' a run-down farm north-east of Perth with its old derelict house where sheep wandered through at will and over-grown garden and yards, led to years of hard work with many frustrations and rewards on the way. The house was restored to its former grandeur, the garden regained and farming started: first sheep, then crops and, the ultimate, an olive grove. Less rewarding were the hazards of country life: the locust plague, young olive trees attacked, fire threatening the property and ruined hay, but they and 'Nardie' survived.

From Cabbage Trees to Gum Trees ranges in time and territory with descriptions of travels within and beyond Australia but it is mainly a story of farming life told with humour and detailed observation.