Jumping Over the Wheel

Pacific Dunlop is one of the most unusual companies in Australia's history.

It began as a maker of bicycle tires in a Melbourne lane in the depression of 1893.

Geoffrey Blainey is one of Australia's leading historians. He has written books on many of the large themes of Australia's history and he has also written more than any other historian about the industrial, mining and financial history of the nation.

This is the fascinating story of inventions in the workplace, of dramatic changes in transport and sport, the contest for world markets, the crises caused by wars and depression, changes in the way people work and live, high finance, triumphs and dissention in the boardrooms, and the little known careers of captains of industry and finance.

The book reveals much that is new about the history of Australia in the last 100 years, as well as the story, for the first time, of one of its most successful and long-lasting companies.