How It All Started
Every great journey begins with a story. Mine is no different. Backpacks & Backlists has been born from a fierce passion for travel, for sharing journeys with new friends, for inspiring young women to boldly go forth and seek out adventure in a world that too frequently tells us we can’t.
I spent my youth exploring Australia, on roadtrips and camping trips with my family and on volunteer overnights with my grandmother. Every school holidays my grandmother would borrow a camper van from a friend, pick me up and whiz me away to some remote location where we would plant trees or work with a local animal charity for a few days. Those trips remain some of my favourite memories of my grandmother, even if at the time I resented that she wasn’t a biscuit-baking grandma.
A voracious reader, my favourite books featured heroines who broke the rules, were curious and engaged in the world around them and envisioned a better life for themselves. Think Jo March, Alice in Wonderland, Anne Shirley or Scout Finch; young girls considered impertinent by the adults around them but who were role models of adventure and curiosity to me. My grandmother supported my preferences, gifting me book and book.
As soon as I could, I jumped a plane and got myself out of Perth. From my first camping trip with my family, to my first solo overland journey across South East Asia, my love of travel has kept me inspired, engaged and has taught me countless lessons. I’ve lived in three continents and travelled to over fifty countries, and even in the midst of a global pandemic my love of discovering new places to explore has never waned.
How Its Going
Fast-track over 20 years, and I’ve travelled through over 50 countries both alone and with friends or a partner. I’ve visited the places that inspired my favourite stories, and created plenty of my own. A travel career professional, the Covid-19 pandemic threw a spanner in the works, and I leaned on books. Pivoting to jobs in bookselling and publishing meant I could continue to travel from my tiny Melbourne apartment. With the world open once more, I’m back in the travel sector and I’ve got even more tips and tricks for how we travel now, in a “post-Covid” world. Backpacks & Backlists is here for you to discover new and exciting things in the everyday; its for us all to spark something, find community and reach each other through a shared love of adventure.