Authors Emily Gale and Nova Weetman have combined forces to write Outlaw Girls, an exciting, fast-paced time-slip novel, narrated by both characters, Ruby and Kate. It’s about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, the complexity of right and wrong, and working out what matters most.

Good Reading for Kids talked to the authors about the inspiration for the story and if they could go back in time, where would they go?

Outlaw Girls is based on real historical people and events – what inspired this novel? And what can you tell us about the Kelly Gang?

The story of Ned Kelly – the most famous of Australia’s bushrangers – is very famous but most people don’t know what his younger sisters got up to while the Kelly Gang was on the run from the police. We had the idea to make Kate Kelly, who was 14 years old when her brothers became outlaws, the main character in a story. We wanted to look at everything that happened through her eyes. Like her brothers, Kate was highly skilled on horseback. While the gang was living out in the bush with a price on their heads for murder, they relied on Kate to bring them food and other supplies. This was a huge risk – anyone who was proven to be helping the Kelly Gang could end up in prison. Some see Ned and his gang as rebels and others see them as murderers – we wanted to explore the story as a teenage girl whose life was altered so much because she was their sister. – EG

What did you find most surprising or shocking while researching your book?

I think it’s always shocking to think about the prison sentence that Ellen Kelly (Ned and Kate’s mother) got in 1878 for the alleged crime that led to the Kelly Gang forming. Ellen was given three years for attempting to murder a police officer called Fitzpatrick, even though Fitzpatrick was barely injured. Ellen had only just had a baby. The baby had to live in prison with her, while her other young children were looked after by Kate and her sisters Maggie and Grace. The police watched Kate and her sisters all the time and came to the house at night to frighten them into saying where Ned was hiding. But the sisters were loyal and courageous. The newspapers wrote about Kate often. They were impressed by how Kate could ride faster than the police, and the way she was suspected of helping her brothers but never caught in the act. – EG

What can you tell us about your characters Kate and Ruby and the adventures they will go on?

Outlaw Girls is a friendship story between two girls from two very different times who meet through a time slip. Ruby is rebellious and living in contemporary Shepparton. When we first meet her she is trying to steal a tractor with her friends, but tractors go very slowly so it makes it easy to be caught. Kate is just trying to survive and help her brothers and the family. Together they are a force. Strong-willed, capable, smart and loyal. They outrun police on horseback, they race across the high country, and they help the Kelly Gang. – NW

Both your novels Outlaw Girls and Elsewhere Girls look at time travel – if you could go back in time to any date or place, where would you travel to and why?

I often think about this. Paris in the 1920s with all those artists. New York in the 1960s with all those rallies and political movements. But I think perhaps I’d just return to the 1980s in Melbourne where life was pretty simple for teenagers and we didn’t have phones and we just roamed around on our bikes looking for adventures. – NW

I’d like to try most eras and places but only from Monday to Friday, then back to my own time for the weekend and onto the next time and place on Monday morning! I might follow Elizabeth I around in the 1550s before she became queen to see what it was like to live in a castle; I’d like to see some of the French Revolution, maybe Paris in 1792, but from a safe place, please; and maybe Sydney in the 1970s to see the political changes and the fashion. – EG

In Outlaw Girls Ruby travels to 1878 – what can you tell us about life back then?

Ruby, the character from 2024, would have noticed that there was no electricity in the house – any warmth came from keeping the fire going, while light came from candles or perhaps an oil lamp. Messages were sent via letter or telegraph. Teenage girls would have worn long dresses, cinched at the waist, with full skirts and little heeled boots fastened with buttons. The food they ate was influenced by the different cultures who’d settled in Australia, so for Kate’s family that was Irish food like meat stews and homemade bread. Kate and her siblings would not have spent long in school, and there were very few opportunities for working-class girls like her apart from helping out on the family farm, getting married and having babies, or becoming servants. Horseback and carriages were how they travelled around, except if they needed to go very far in which case they’d take the train. We had fun writing a nail-biting chapter in Outlaw Girls that takes place on a train. – EG

What do you love about historical fiction? And why do you think it’s important?

To understand the present, it’s important we understand how we got here. And that’s why history is relevant. Sometimes it’s surprising how little things have changed. Historical fiction is like a time-machine that takes us back to other places and shows us what life was like for the people and the culture. But because it’s fiction, only some elements are true. Others are imagined by the author. And that’s exciting too. – NW