Digit Dick's walkabout on the Barrier Reef

"A game based on the story by Leslie Rees" - box cover.

Published between 1945 and 1954, and based on the best-selling Australian children's book "Digit Dick on the Barrier Reef" by Leslie Rees (1905-2000) illustrated by Walter Cunningham, published by John Sands, Melbourne, in 1942. Set in Queensland, the book details the adventures of Digit Dick , a "little boy only as big as his mother's big toe", who smuggles himself on holiday with his parents in his father's coat pocket.

The game is a simple roll-and-move race game using marbles as pawns on a board mounted in the game box. The track is a connected sequence of 45 holes. Most holes are small enough to hold the marble in place, but 9 of the holes are large enough to swallow the marble (and represent the adventures Dick has in the book).

Players must throw 1 or 6 on a six-sided die to being, then get to roll again for a proper move. If the player's marble lands on a big hole, it rolls down the box and he must start again. If he lands on an already-occupied small hole, he places hi own marble one space behind (which might be a big hole). He must throw an exact number to finish, otherwise he moves backwards the excess amount.

A second version "for older children and grown-ups". In this version, a big hole causes you marble to move backwards 5 spaces (instead of starting again). If the countback takes you past the start space, you must start again.

The rules sheet summarizes the story of Digit Dick on the back, and advertises two other Digit Dick book titles; Digit Dick and the Tasmanian Devil (set in Tasmania), and Digit Dick in Black Swanland (set in Western Australia).