History, Both Personal and Australian, Inspire Author Shell’s Writing 

“Flood” is part of Ryn Shell’s “Dreaming Billabong” series, and like the others in the series, it is a sweeping epic that has elements of romance, mystery, crime and adventure. It tells the stories of Fife Springs, a fictional town in remote  inland Australia 60 years ago.  A time when white European settlers journeyed to Australia to make a new life following the Second World War and found themselves thrown into close contact with the aboriginal people who had inhabited the land for centuries.  As is often the case, the people who had been living in Fife Springs long before the arrival of Europeans find themselves displaced and discriminated against in “Flood.” And the settlers find that Australia’s outback is more challenging than they ever dreamed it would be.

The story centers around Emily and Jarrah, young people from different sides of the cultural…