A former solicitor, Nicola was born and bred in London. When she married Anthony Crichton-Brown, Chief Executive of Lumley Insurance, she knew he owned a large farm in New South Wales but never dreamt that it would become their marital home. Having negligible experience of country lifw anywhere, she faced a challenge of making a new life in a completely different environement from the one she knew. Finding some parallels betwen her own situtation and those which she imagined must have faced the original pioneering family at Deltroit, she began to discover the history behind the guilded cage that had become her home. In doing so, she found a way into the heart of the community and a connection with theland that she never thought possible.

It takes vision and fortitude to transform 'wilderness' in the Murrumbidgee basin into something of the eminence of Deltroit, one of the finest grazing properties south of Sydney. Who was it that achieved this, how was it done, and why did this iconic Riverina property, about which nothing has ever been published before, end up in the hands of King Ranch, Texas, a giant in global beef production? What is it about Deltroit that continues to seduce and set the benchmark in modern pastoralism?