Nevil Shute's novel A Town Like Alice, and the resulting film and television mini-series, take their name from Alice Springs, although little of the action takes place there; because part of the story is set in Willstown (possibly modelled on Burketown) situated north of Alice Springs, near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Burketown is believed to be the basis of 'Willstown' (note the name of Burke's partner, above), a very amenity-challenged town fictionally developed into a successful and growing community to become A Town Like Alice by Jean Paget, a character created by Nevil Shute in his bestselling novel of that name.
Croydon was mentioned in the 1950 novel "A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute, as an example of a largely abandoned gold rush town.
Georgetown is one of the real locations mentioned several times in the novel "A Town Like Alice" by Nevil Shute.
The character of Billy Slim in Nevil Shute's 1952 novel The Far Country was based on Fred Fry, a notable fly fisherman, who constructed several huts along the Howqua River and eked out a quiet existence in the river valley.
A plane of this type has a major role in the plot of the 1927 thriller So Disdained by Nevil Shute.
The area round Mansfield named as Banbury was also the location of the novel The Far Country by Nevil Shute which featured logging on Mount Buller and previous forest fires, which having swept through Howqua obliterated almost all traces of a former settlement.
Shute | Nevil Shute | Nevil Maskelyne | Shute, Devon | John Nevil Maskelyne | Old Shute House | Shute Shield | Robbie Nevil | Samuel Shute | Nevil Maskelyne (magician) | Nevil Dede | Josias Shute | John W. Shute | John Shute | Henry Shute | Henry Nevil Payne | C'est La Vie (Robbie Nevil song) |
He directed Richardson's memorable radio performance of Nevil Shute's Requiem for a Wren, which was featured as a Book at Bedtime.