Lisa Wilkinson

Well, I was actually, I quite like coming up with ideas for my husband's books.

And I think he's written now more than 40 Peter Fitzsimons.

And he really specialises in great historical moments, often military based, and biographies as well.

And he happened to be looking at a photograph of the Titanic one day.

And I was looking at it too.

And I said to him, have you

ever check to see if there are any Australians on the Titanic?

I've never heard of any Australians on the Titanic.

Pete admitted he hadn't either.

And we figured with about 80 years of journalism between us, if we've never heard of any Australians on the Titanic, there clearly weren't any.

But I said to him, you really should look into it.

And a couple of days went by and I checked in again and realised that my husband did what a lot of husbands do, ignore their wives and their ideas.

And I thought, I'm fascinated.

I want to know.

So I looked into it and was shocked to discover that there were, in fact, six Australians amongst passengers and crew on the Titanic, on that maiden and only voyage.

but only one survived, the only woman.

And she was this nurse, 28 years of age, from a tiny little speck of dust an hour and a half north of Adelaide.

She was the youngest of five children of the local stationmaster and his wife.

And there wasn't a lot on the internet, but there was enough for me to realise this was a very spirited young woman.

She was a champion horsewoman.