As a former commercial pilot, and army and airforce officer Douglas Whitfield has seen a lot of the world but always finds his way back to Western Australia.
Now an author living in Mandurah, Whitfield said he had always been drawn to places like the Peel region due to its' diversity and people.
"The people that live in Mandurah who have been here for a long time are a lot like the people in other country towns and the outback - they still have these older values and qualities," he said.
"Much like people in Kalgoorlie and the Nullarbor have inspired my stories, Mandurah has also inspired concepts from the people I've met here."
After spending most of his life flying over small country towns and in the outback his recent book, Wundarra-Bilyana, Eagle of the Nullarbor offers a wealth of insight into his time in the Nullarbor.
"I wanted to highlight the incredible size of the Nullarbor plain and it is a part of WA that I feel is underrated and should be known about," he said.
"There is a thing of beauty out on the Nullarbor that I wanted to share with people."
The story has a unique style as it focuses on a Wedge-tailed eagle, which acts as a way of introducing the Nullarbor plain and a concept of life from a different perspective.
"The book portrays how the Aboriginals on the Nullarbor plain respect other people and they are disciplined when things turn bad like when we saw the bushfires in the Eastern states," Whitfield said.
"We don't plan for those sort of things but people in the bush do.
"The guys out on the station know what to do and are calm, cool and collected and that's the way the eagle is on the Nullarbor."
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With a deep appreciation for the Aboriginals on the Nullarbor plain, Whitfield also said he touched on this through the dialogue.
"The dialogue in the book I've deliberately made it in the way people talk in those areas and the dialogue of the Aboriginal people who have been on that land since ancient times," he said.
"People in the bush don't say much but its possible to have a conversation with someone and not actually say anything because people are just like that on the Nullarbor.
"Just them sitting down with you can be there way of socialising so I'm trying to portray that with the eagle."
Wundarra-Bilyana, Eagle of the Nullarbor is available on Austinmacauley.com, Amazon and at Woodley's newsagency.
