One of a pack of sunburnt, wild kids with scraped knees running about from dawn to dusk, Donaldson said she remembered some of the most innocent times growing up in Launceston.

Her memories have been translated into a collection of short stories, There Be Dragons, published by 40 Degrees South.

The stories are all based on true events, complemented by whimsical charcoal sketches by Donaldson’s daughter Matilda.

“Some of the characters are composite, but it’s all real – the kind of things every kid got up to about that time, there was so much freedom,” Donaldson said.

“Our parents would say ‘off you go, come back when you’re hungry or come back when it’s dark’.

“No one ever asked ‘where have you been, who were you with, what did you do?’”

Revisiting her childhood to write the stories, Donaldson said looking back she realised how lucky she and her compatriots to grow up in a safe and welcoming town.

“We were very street-wise and I think in many ways it makes you resilient,” she said.

“We never went anywhere on our own, it was always a little gang of kids. We developed an instinct that I think if kids are coddled, they don’t have the chance to do that.”

Her stories are short, narrative pieces soaked in childhood fears – real and imagined – from navigating the terrifying ‘Brickfields gang’ to get to school each day, to the fantastical fears of Danny Crawford’s dragons in the woodshed.

Donaldson said she began writing the warm, character-filled stories more than 20 years ago, but despite the urging of a close friend at the time, didn’t submit them to a publisher.

Her life as a nurse, working in New Guinea, travelling around Australia and finally returning to Tasmania, consumed much of her time for many years before she turned back to writing.

With There Be Dragons completed, Donaldson says “one day” she will write the remarkable story of her time in New Guinea as a young, solo nurse living deep in the remote jungle.

“I was the only medical person for 5000 miles,” she said.

“I will write that story one day.”