Preliminary design for the dustjacket of the Miles Franklin Award winning novel, first published in Sydney by Collins in 1975. Oil painting on stiff card, the size of the book, 29 x 51 cm folded as a dustjacket. The rough sketch by Crooke shows his initial thoughts regarding the design of the wrapper. The bleak landscape insert would be reworked and developed to encompass the whole jacket. Accompanied by finished cover with annotations.

This oil on canvas is of an Australian bush landscape, featuring an Aboriginal figure holding a spear in the lower left-hand section. It was commissioned by William Collins Publishers for the jacket cover of Xavier Herbert's book Poor Fellow My Country. The painting was presented to Ken Wilder, Managing Director of Collins, when he retired. The painting was donated to Fryer Library in 2001 in memory of Ken and Jean Wilder's son, Christopher.