A study of Arthur Upfield and his long-term relationship with Albermarle station, in north-western NSW from the early 1920s, where he found so many characters and plots for his Bony novels, featuring an Aboriginal detective. Upfield's letters to EV (Verco) Whyte, the overseer at Albermarle, who inspired Upfield's Gripped By Drought, are augmented by Whyte’s own photographs of station life in the 1920s.