Tearaway Coach by Neridah McMullin illustrated by Andrew McLean

Fenton Wood (Fen) and his father need to travel from Ballarat to Geelong. Mama has gone to stay with her own parents awaiting the arrival of a new baby. Fen and his dad have booked tickets on the famous Cobb and Co coach. Papa pays a little more so Fen can sit up with the driver. The coach is filled with passengers, luggage, bags of mail and gold. A new team of six horses are put into the harnesses. The driver is Edward Devine but he is known as Cabbage Tree Ned. He is based a real coach driver Edward (Ned) Devine (1833–1908).

The coach trip is filled with hazards and of course the danger of attack by bushrangers but this is so much more than a book about bushrangers who robbed stagecoaches during the Australian Gold Rush period of the 1850s. Neridah McMullin weaves other dangers into her story such as riding at night over poorly defined tracks, the danger from broken brakes, wildly stampeding horses and the low visibility of a single lantern. The story pace is set by the urgency to arrive on time and the urgency to arrive, perhaps, before the new baby is born. Then there is also the urgency to escape from the bushrangers and their guns. The coach really is a tearaway. 

The story also explores the relationship between Cabbage Tree Ned, the coach driver and Fen, his young passenger, and it also hints at the caring relationships in Fen’s own family when his father pays extra for Fen to ride next to the driver and when we see the family reunited in Geelong.

The illustrations move between full page spreads and small vignettes and the text uses different fonts for emphasis and to highlight two important introductions – meeting Edward Devine or Cabbage Tree Ned and meeting the new baby. 

The cover illustration is taken from the text and perfectly shows an Australian outback scene. The dust blowing behind the coach reinforces the speed of the coach with bounding kangaroos matching the pace of the team of horses. The illustrations were created with pencil, charcoal pencil, watercolour, pastel and Procreate. The sense of time is created by changes to the background colours and the sky which gradually turns blue as the night moves to day. Use of capital letters for the sounds such as the bang of the gun, the clip clop of the horses and the commands to the horses all add to the drama of the story making it a perfect one to read aloud. 

End notes provide extra details about the Cobb and Co coaches that travelled from Ballarat to Geelong and the hazards they faced. As I previously said - Edward Devine was a famous coach driver of the period.

With Andrew McLean’s expressive illustrations, this story takes the reader straight back into that amazing time in our history that formed such an important part of the Australian story, and as much as Fen’s journey is engaging and exciting, it also opens up another aspect of life in the times to explore. The Bottom Shelf

This wonderful evocation of life in early Australia is wonderfully told, and the illustrations are marvellously presented, giving young readers a great deal of detail to look at. Large sweeps of Australian bush land and vistas of blue skies will make them feel part of Fen’s world. The images of the horses are engrossing, drawing the eyes into the detail of their role in pulling the coach, mesmerised by the way they are linked to the driver and the coach itself. Read Plus

The story, shown through Fenton’s eyes and experiences, is high stakes and exciting, taking readers aged four and over on an epic journey in a mode of transport that many readers will never have seen or heard of before, and in doing so, Neridah has brought history to life again. The Book Muse

(Note this blog post is partly based on the annotation I have written for the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature Picture Books for Older reader database).

EVERY Primary school library should add Tearaway Coach to their library collection and I am very sure we will see this book listed as a CBCA 2025 Notable title. It would be great to compare this book with two older books illustrated by Andrew McLean - The Riverboat Crew and The Steam Train Crew. Trove list over 140 books under his name.

Here are some other books illustrated by Andrew McLean. He is one of our most talented Australian children's book illustrators. Andrew McLean grew up in the Victorian country town of Bairnsdale. He trained as a painter and teacher and taught in secondary schools before becoming a lecturer in painting and drawing at Caulfield Institute of Technology. He has been a full-time artist now for more than thirty years. Andrew and his wife Janet have created many picture books together, and Andrew also illustrates books written by other authors. Many of his books have been award winners: he has won the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award three times.

Check out my recent post of Eat my dust by Neridah McMullin.