Jim Fitzpatrick

Wheeling Matilda Jim Fitzpatrick

Wheeling Matilda: The Story of Australian Cycling, sweeps across nearly 150 years of bicycle use in Australia. Set in a country which had the largest bicycle path network in the world in the 1890s and was the long distance cycling centre of the world for many years, this is an eye-opening history. Australian soldiers were at the forefront of the first significant wartime use of the bicycle, in the Boer War, and during the international heyday of cycling, Australia held the richest bicycle race in the world. Today Australia is a powerhouse of the cycle racing scene. From Sydney to South Africa, from Melbourne to Madison Square Garden-and in places in between where you would never expect to even see a bicycle-Australians riders have been there.