Why I wrote the book

One morning a couple of years ago, my godson Toby was having a holiday with me in New Zealand. He was about four then.
We got up early before anyone else was awake, and he liked to watch Postman Pat. Or, at least, I thought he did.
Then I realized he only liked the theme song: Postman Pat, Postman Pat, Postman Pat and his black and white cat (or however it goes). He sang along, but then he completely ignored the show and played with his fire trucks.
Can’t say I blame him. Not much happens in Postman Pat, sweet though it may be. One day I watched the drama centred around the loss of someone’s glasses.
Playing with fire trucks seemed like a much more exciting option at 6am.
Then I thought: We need an Australian version.
With a bit more drama in it.
Of course we do already have some much-loved homegrown picture book heroes, but I thought about it some more over the next few days, and realised that an Australian folky hero would be just like my Uncle Phil: someone who knows how to look after themselves in the bush, who maybe doesn’t have kids but whom kids adore, and who can save the day with a minimum of fuss.
So the character of Billabong Bill was born.