This is Edna Walling's fourth book, and in it she demonstrates her love of Australian native flora, the Australian countryside, and her growing preoccupation with conservation issues. Travelling widely around the eastern states of Australia, she came to understand that while roadside vegetation suffers greatly from environmental degradation, it is often the last refuge of much that has disappeared from the surrounding land because it has escaped clearing. This is largely a collection of her photographs taken during her travels. The text includes detailed notes of specific roadsides, notes on roadside ecology and suggestions for highway planting.

A second edition was published in 1985 as "Country Roads: The Australian Roadside", by Pioneer Design Studio.