In 2004, the ABC posted an advertisement asking people whether they wanted to take part in a social experiment, an ABC TV eight-part series along the same lines of such popular hits as 'The Edwardian Country House' and 'The 1940s House'. This time people were invited to apply for positions on a working squatter's sheep station--set in the 1860s. Everyone involved would have to live, dress, eat and work exactly as they did then, isolated for three months from the outside world. The Outback House is the companion volume to the series, looking behind the scenes and explaining the historical, social and economic way of life of the time. From descriptions of crutching sheep to wearing crinolines, from making butter to treating body lice, and all the social and farming dramas in between, life in the Outback House is compelling and utterly fascinating reading.