Wendy Law Suart

Wendy Law Suart (26 August 1926 – 16 July 2012) was an Australian traveller and writer. She is best known for the 11,000-mile (18,000 km), three-year-long cycling trip round Australia that she undertook with her friend Shirley Duncan between 1946 – 1949. She wrote several books about her life.

Early life Suart was born in Hamilton, Victoria, to Arthur Law, an inspector of schools and later principal of Melbourne Teachers' College, and his wife, Lily (née Chapman). Suart was the youngest of their six children; their second child (and one of three sons) was Phillip Law, later a scientist and Antarctic explorer. Suart attended University High School, Melbourne, where one of her friends was Shirley Duncan; the pair had dreams of travelling the world. In her youth Suart had piano lessons from jazz pianist Graeme Bell. They finally returned to Melbourne in April 1949, visiting Antarctica, Bhutan, Tierra del Fuego, Bulgaria, the Amazon, Yangtze and Irrawaddy rivers, China, Borneo, Hong Kong and Russia among others.

In 2007 Suart featured on the BBC Radio 4 travel programme Excess Baggage, discussing her bicycle ride.

A keen pianist, Suart played regularly at an antiques warehouse in Hampshire. She released a CD, I've Heard that Song Before, which featured 46 tunes from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Suart died on 16 July 2012 at her home in Hampshire.