The Sixty Miler is a poetic blend of memoir and maritime history. Author Norma Sim twins the life of her husband William with the story of the Birchgrove Park, one of the fleet of coal-carrying ships that sailed between Newcastle and Sydney from the early 1800s. Both man and ship were from Aberdeenshire, both sailed the globe during the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1956 their paths crossed in tragic circumstances. Interwoven with these storylines are the histories of many other ‘sixty milers’ that plied the treacherous coast of New South Wales.
