Roger Jose lived his adult life in Borroloola, married to an Aboriginal woman and beyond the pale of white civilisation, except in its most vestigial form. Nevertheless, he achieved a certain notoriety, through the writings of journalists such as Ernestine Hill and Douglas Lockwood. He also fascinated a young documentary film-maker named David Attenborough. Roger Jose claimed to be related to the respectable Jose family of Adelaide, which was not enthusiastic about acknowledging him. He lodged, an anarchic and glamorous figure, in the imagination of the young Nicholas Jose, and the tracking of his story provides the infrastructure that legitimises the writer’s journey into the north. Jose says: ‘I wanted the connection because I wanted to join myself to someone who had earned his belonging in this country.’ In the place to which he travels, this connection, real or not, is all-important, giving him an insider’s access to places and stories.