[3] On his return from the war, he took up land in 1946 in the north-west of New South Wales (east of the Pilliga and later at "Cumberdeen", Baradine)[4] and farmed and wrote,[1] often spending long periods in Sydney, researching at the Mitchell Library.
[4] He had two happy marriages, the first with Joan Stephenson and after her death in 1985,[5] a second with Elaine van Kempen (1937–2019),[6] whom he met when she came to work for him in 1985 as his research assistant,[7] and married in 1988.
[3] One of his most celebrated works is A Million Wild Acres of which Tom Griffiths (emeritus professor of history at the Australian National University) wrote:
Through his democratic recognition of all life, Rolls enchanted the forest and presented us with a speaking land, a sentient country raucous with sound.
"[8]Rolls' papers and sound recordings, including an interview with Hazel de Berg, are held by the National Library of Australia.