As our camper van trundled across the arid landscape of Australia's Northern Territory, the relentless sun continued to beat down. It was time for an ice cream, so we pulled off the main road and headed into the sleepy town of Pine Creek. We found refreshment at a shop called Ah Toy's Store - but also something more.
Behind the counter stood the owner, Edward Ah Toy, whose grandfather was born in a village near Hong Kong and emigrated to Australia more than a century ago.
After living in Beijing for more than seven years, my family and I are on a five-month trip before heading back to Britain to start new lives. We may have left China behind, but we are finding that its people - and immigrants from many other countries - have helped shape the young nation of Australia. The shop owner's grandfather, Jimmy Ah You, arrived in Darwin from Guangdong in 1880, drawn by the promise of gold, which had just been discovered in the region.
He settled in Pine Creek, where there were 750 Chinese people living with a few dozen Europeans. The road sign that welcomes visitors to the town today recognises this heritage; it shows a picture of a Chinese worker carrying two baskets tied to a pole slung over his shoulder. In the years after his arrival, Jimmy's family prospered. There were 10 children, with the final one born when Jimmy was about 80 years old.
Edward Ah Toy is just one of many descendants of that first immigrant. Edward's father bought the store in 1935, and Edward has been working there since 1955. He said he intends to live in Pine Creek for the rest of his life. His Chinese features and a few broken words in his grandfather's language are now his only links to China.
On our journey - to Bali, Australia and next to New Zealand - we've been home-schooling our children, eight-year-old Sam and Tilly, five. After living in China, where civilisation dates back at least 5,000 years, the kids have been learning Down Under about building a country from scratch - and the kind of people who did it.