title: Lonely Planet Discover Australia (Travel Guide)
author:  Lonely Planet 
description: Ham worked as a refugee lawyer for three years. He is now a freelance writer and photographer in Australia.
zlib_text: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF LONELY PLANET...
  
  ![t-m-wheeler](Image00000.jpg)
  
  It was 40 years ago that the first Lonely Planet guide was launched,
  revolutionising the way independent travellers saw the world. Tony and Maureen
  Wheeler had travelled overland from Britain, driving a beat-up old car across
  Europe and Asia and hitching a lift on a yacht for the final leg to Australia.
  
  ‘Every time we went to a party, questions would come up about our trip to
  Australia,’ explains Tony. ‘How did we do it? How much did it cost? What’s
  Bali like? Can you really hitch through Thailand? Are trains in India as bad
  as they say? Is Afghanistan dangerous? Can you really get all the way to
  Europe by land?’
  
  Urged on by their friends, they spent nights at their kitchen table writing,
  typing and stapling together their very first travel guide, Across Asia on the
  Cheap .
  
  Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. Two years
  later, their second journey led to South-East Asia on a Shoest