Chance discoveries and world-leading research transformed Australia's agriculture. They made farming possible in marginal areas and more sustainable everywhere. How did it happen and who made it happen?

The story starts with earliest discoveries, such as Amos Howard's finding subterranean clover in 1889, through the golden era of research, the spread of annual legumes and the breeding of a new crop, grain lupin, to creating new wine-growing regions such as Margaret River, to the present time. Central to the story is John Gladstones. His research and contributions from scientists, farmers, mad medicos and politicians changed our agriculture and viticulture forever.

Craig Pearson, PhD FAIAST grew up in Western Australia where he studied agriculture at university while managing a farm. He later became a professor of agriculture, coordinated pasture research throughout Australia and New Zealand, was president of the Canadian Deans of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and founding director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. He has written a dozen books. He knew many of the people who inhabit this one.