This work investigates the resourcefulness and survival strategies employed by rural Australians living in the country's remote interior during the twentieth century. Author Murray Walker compiles a collection of personal accounts and visual documentation to illustrate how individuals adapted to the harsh conditions of the Australian outback. The text argues that the ingenuity required to 'make do' with limited resources defined the social character and daily existence of these isolated communities. By focusing on domestic and labor-based problem solving, the book provides a record of a lifestyle that has largely vanished due to modernization.

Historians and cultural researchers value this work as a primary source for understanding the material culture of rural Australia. Readers frequently note the accessible, anecdotal nature of the prose, which balances historical documentation with personal narrative.