Mr Dwyer was thought to be “a man in search of his country, in search of himself” but he just thought he was lost. However after 10 months, 70,000 kilometres and literally hundreds of stories he found his way back with a book and a CD to tell the tale.

“The trip came about after I rang (Charles) Wooley for some publicity for a previous book I was trying to flog at the time,” said the Today Show’s wandering weatherman.

“He made me a counter-offer to help, providing I jumped in a loudly-decorated campervan and ventured out in ‘the heartland’ to source stories for broadcast on his radio show. So out I went.

“After years of previous travel throughout Australia I thought I knew it well but truth is I had my eyes opened by the experience.

“I saw towns dying for want of a good drink while downstream fish teemed across flooded roads and cattle filled themselves with air to float over fences.

“I saw grown men cry admittng they’d wasted their lives working land that no longer paid.

“I watched our government invade Aboriginal communities in the Nothern Territory with an army-led task force and little or no consultation.

“I saw the double-edged sword of the mining boom, while the one hand keeps our economy healthy, and the other makes us a significant contributor to world greenhouse gas emissions.

“I interviewed nutters, nudists, hookers and saints, and had my thinking changed by scientists, Aborigines, farmers and kids.

“And all the while I knew I was being offered a rare privilege; that of being shown my own country by the people who know it best.”

Mr Dwyer said sometimes a chance conversation by the side of the road would yield a great story, at other times he would be following a lead for a day’s drive or more.

“I had purple patches where the stories came thick and fast, two and three at a time, and lean stretches where it seemed I couldn’t buy one.

“Yet always they came, almost as if the country was trying to tell me its big story with a thousand little ones.”