Spending her life in Queensland's North West, Beryl has experienced rural floods, fires, droughts and other difficulties that face Australia's inland. When she married Stuart Hunter and moved to life "on the land" she found she had stepped on a pathway that included raising six children, teaching school lessons, assisting with station jobs and serving on Local Government. It was a life that gave her some understanding of conditions that would have been experienced by our colonial pioneers. Her book, Hughenden & Beyond, addresses sea discoveries that led to European settlement of Australian, of colonial inland exploration and climaxes with the settlement of Hughenden. It then focuses on the pioneers who trekked westward down the winding Flinders River to an unknown future in an era when the horse was the fastest transport available. Reading the journals of explorers and others, who made our colourful history, formed part of the author's research for this work and her efforts are referenced accordingly. All is brought together in an informative easy to read and lively style.