Roger Scholes was interested in the way that isolation had shaped women's lives in this region. In the late 1970s, when he was researching, he met and photographed many people who had lived all their lives in the harsh environment of the Tasmanian Highlands. He was preparing a book, based on the interviews and photographs, but it was never completed. He decided to turn the material into a feature film instead. "The Tale of Ruby Rose" was his first and is still his only feature film, although he has developed a number of other projects. Scholes has concentrated largely on documentary since this film.