The Long Road Home: An Accidental Aussie Odyssey

[Pre-Release announcement from publisher (Disappearing Ink)]

Whitley Award-Winning Naturalist Peter Rowland Announces New Memoir: The Long Road Home

Author to Appear at the Australian Book Fair, Melbourne, 21-22 February 2026

MELBOURNE, VIC – Acclaimed naturalist and wildlife photographer Peter Rowland announces the February 2026 release of his much-anticipated travel memoir, The Long Road Home: An Accidental Aussie Odyssey, published by Disappearing Ink. Rowland, author/co-author of 14 books on Australian wildlife, will officially release the 360-page work at the Australian Book Fair in Melbourne this February.

In 1992, long before the accolades, Peter Rowland was a “counterfeit Aussie”. Born in Sydney but raised in Devon, England, Rowland returned to his birthplace feeling like a tourist in his own home. Struggling with crippling anxiety and a sense of displacement, he was given an unconventional prescription by an ER doctor: “You need a holiday. A proper one”.

The result was an unplanned, 19,828.6-kilometre circumnavigation of Australia. In an age before mobile phones and GPS, Rowland and his companion, Mark, navigated by paper maps and sheer luck in a battered Subaru station wagon.

The Long Road Home is more than a travelogue; it is a candid exploration of how 55 days on the road – subsisting on instant noodles and enduring mechanical mishaps – became the foundation for a distinguished career in natural history. From the “primeval stillness” of a Kakadu crocodile to a personal “ornithological triumph” with a Tawny Frogmouth, the book details the healing power of the Australian landscape.

“That trip was never about the destinations we didn’t reach,” says Rowland. “It was about discovering a passion that gave my life direction. The long road home wasn’t about arriving at a single place, but about finding a journey that never truly ends”.

Event Details: Peter Rowland will be at the Australian Book Fair in Melbourne on 21-22 February 2026. He will be available at his stall to sign copies and discuss his body of work. Additionally, he will be a featured speaker on a discussion panel on Saturday morning, 21 February.

Contact Information: For review copies, interviews, or further information, please contact: Peter Rowland – peter@prpw.com.au or Disapearing Ink – disappearinginkpress@gmail.com.