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Chapter 1

FIRST LADY

At an art exhibition in Melbourne, a woman stands before a black-and-white photographic portrait. She stares in rapt admiration at the image of a well-dressed lady riding a bicycle. A reporter approaches. Without breaking her gaze she whispers to him: ‘That is the first lady cyclist. That is Mrs Maddock who travelled from Sydney on her bicycle.’

The year was 1894, a time when most city-dwelling Australians elected to travel between the capital cities by train or steamship. Those individuals who attempted such distances by pedal power were either explorers, itinerant workers or just plain mad. It was certainly no journey for respectable, middle-class people. The prospect of a woman making the 925-kilometre trek was beyond ordinary comprehension. Until now.

Over nine days, Sarah Maddock and her husband, Ernest, rode their bicycles along the inland route that would later become the Hume Highway. In so doing, she became the first woman to cycle between the colonial capitals. Ernest had already made the same journey a decade earlier, but no one cared about that. Everyone wanted to talk about Sarah.

Nothing about Sarah conformed to expectations — and certainly not the way she looked. People expected to see a sturdy type, someone with chunky thighs and a weathered face. Instead, they saw a tall, slim woman with fine features and a ‘poetically pale’ complexion. Sarah looked less like an overlanding pioneer and more like a genteel lady of leisure who had just finished lunch at a city café. Her poised exterior masked exceptional determination and endurance. Although she would have recoiled at being described as an athlete, she was in fact one of the most audacious female riders of her generation.