Perth Then and Now by Richard Offen

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian

Archival photographs of Perth have been carefully matched with specially commissioned colour photos to reveal the past and present of this fascinating city. Perth Then and Now accurately matches historic photographs of the city with specially commissioned contemporary views that show how each site looks today. With an Aboriginal history going back over 40,000 years, Perth ranks amongst the oldest places on earth with near continuous human habitation. The modern city came into being in 1829 with the formation of the Swan River Colony. For the first 60 years of its existence, Perth was no more than a small country town which lived on an economic knife-edge between riches and ruin. Then, in the 1890s, commercial quantities of gold were discovered in the North and East of Western Australia. This sparked the first of several mineral booms in the State and resulted in Perth being able to demonstrate its newfound wealth in the form grandiose buildings which transformed the modest town into a fine city. Since the late nineteenth century, a cycle of 'boom and bust' has added successive layers of development to the city's rich tapestry of building styles. As with many cities around the world, Perth witnessed the destruction of many older buildings during the last quarter of the 20th century, but has now learned to respect its heritage, resulting in some spectacular and imaginative adaptive reuses of older buildings. Past and present are laid side by side in this fascinating visual tour around the capital of Western Australia. Sites include: Crawley Baths, Narrows Bridge, King's Park, Cottesloe Beach, T&G Building, Government Gardens, Russell Square, City Beach, St Georges Terrace, Hay Street, HIs Majesty's Theatre, Hyde Park, Piccadilly Arcade, Hotel Metropole, Town Hall, St George's Hall, the WACA, GPO Building, Central Arcade, St Mary's Cathedral, Matilda Bay, Horseshoe Bridge, Swan Brewery. ...Show more

Victory on Gallipoli and Other What-ifs of Australian History by Peter Stanley

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian

With a twist of fate - and of historical fact - Gallipoli was a military success, Australia had a female prime minister in the 1920s and Gough Whitlam chose his time to retire from the top job. In Victory on Gallipoli and Other What-ifs of Australian History, prominent historians contemplate how Austral ia today could have been a very different place but for a decision made or not made, an opportunity taken or not taken. These are the nation's sliding door moments, our alternative history. The Cold War had the world teetering on the edge of mutually assured destruction. What if it had heated up? What if the 1951 referendum to outlaw the Communist Party had been successful? Would Australia have had its own McCarthy era and where would we be today? With essays by Janette Bomford, Guy Hansen, Carolyn Holbrook, Walter Kudrycz, Michael McKernan, Ross McMullin, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, John Maynard, Michael Molkentin, Roslyn Russell, Peter Stanley, Craig Wilcox and Clare Wright.   ...Show more

True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia Volume 2 by David Hunt

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian

First there was Girt. Now comes . . . True GirtIn this side-splitting sequel to his best-selling history, David Hunt takes us to the Australian frontier. This was the Wild South, home to hardy pioneers, gun-slinging bushrangers, directionally challenged explorers, nervous indigenous people, Caroline Chi sholm and sheep. Lots of sheep.True Girtintroduces Thomas Davey, the hard-drinking Tasmanian governor who invented the Blow My Skull cocktail, and Captain Moonlite, Australia's most famous LGBTI bushranger. Meet William Nicholson, the Melbourne hipster who gave Australia the steam-powered coffee roaster and the world the secret ballot. And say hello to Harry, the first camel used in Australian exploration, who shot dead his owner, the explorer John Horrocks.Learn how Truganini's death inspired the Martian invasion of Earth. Discover the role of Hall and Oates in the Myall Creek Massacre. And be reminded why you should never ever smoke with the Wild Colonial Boy and Mad Dan Morgan.If Manning Clark and Bill Bryson were left on a desert island with only one pen, they would write True Girt. ...Show more

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

$14.99 AUD

Category: Australian | Series: Vintage Classics Ser. | Reading Level: good

For its twenty-fifth anniversary, a new edition of Bruce Chatwin's classic work with a new introduction by Rory Stewart Part adventure, part novel of ideas, part spiritual autobiography, The Songlines is one of Bruce Chatwin's most famous books.  This singular book, which was a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 1987, engages all of Chatwin's lifelong passions, including his obsession with travel, his interest in the nomadic way of life, and his hunger to understand man's origins and nature.    ...Show more

The Catalpa Rescue: The Most Dramatic & Successful Prison Break in Australian History by Peter FitzSimons

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australian | Reading Level: very good

The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in Australian history. New York, 1874. Members of the Clan-na-Gael - agitators for Irish freedom from the English yoke - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote prison in the Britsh Empire, Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Under the guise of a whale hunt, Captain Anthony sets sail on the Catalpa to rescue the men from the stone walls of this hell on Earth known to the inmates as a 'living tomb'. What follows is one of history's most stirring sagas that splices Irish, American, British and Australian history together in its climatic moment. For Ireland, who had suffered English occupation for 700 years, a successful escape was an inspirational call to arms. For America, it was a chance to slap back at Britain for their support of the South in the Civil War; for England, a humiliation. And for a young Australia, still not sure if it was Great Britain in the South Seas or worthy of being an independent country in its own right, it was proof that Great Britain was not unbeatable. Told with FitzSimons' trademark combination of arresting history and storytelling verve, The Catalpa Rescue is a tale of courage and cunning, the fight for independence and the triumph of good men, against all odds. ...Show more

Truth Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement by Henry Reynolds

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australian

If we are to take seriously the need for telling the truth about our history, we must start at first principles. What if the sovereignty of the First Nations was recognised by European international law in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What if the audacious British annexation of a whole conti nent was not seen as acceptable at the time and the colonial office in Britain understood that 'peaceful settlement' was a fiction? If the 1901 parliament did not have control of the whole continent, particularly the North, by what right could the new nation claim it? The historical record shows that the argument of the Uluru Statement from the Heart is stronger than many people imagine and the centuries-long legal position about British claims to the land far less imposing than it appears. In Truth-Telling, influential historian Henry Reynolds pulls the rug from legal and historical assumptions, with his usual sharp eye and rigour, in a book that's about the present as much as the past. His work shows exactly why our national war memorial must acknowledge the frontier wars, why we must change the date of our national day, and why treaties are important. Most of all, it makes urgently clear that the Uluru Statement is no rhetorical flourish but carries the weight of history and law and gives us a map for the future.   ...Show more

Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australian

A killing. A hidden history. A story that goes to the heart of the nation. When Mark McKenna set out to write a history of the centre of Australia, he had no idea what he would discover. One event in 1934 - the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokunnuna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subseque nt Commonwealth inquiry - stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time. But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, 'Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.' In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice. Return to Uluru brings a cold case to life. It speaks directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, but is completely Australian. Recalling Chloe Hooper's The Tall Man, it is superbly written, moving, and full of astonishing, unexpected twists. Ultimately it is a story of recognition and return, which goes to the very heart of the country. At the centre of it all is Uluru, the sacred site where paths fatefully converged. 'Mark McKenna has exposed the wounded heart of Australia. Never has a history of our country so assumed the power of sacred myth. Return to Uluru is a spellbinding story of death and resurrection that is Australian to its core.' --James Boyce 'Mark McKenna sets the highest standard for truth-telling of the kind that Australians so urgently need if they are to live in this country with honour. I feel sure that this book will become an Australian classic, not the first of its kind, but certainly the most powerful narrative I have read of frontier injustice and its resonance in our lives today.' --Marcia Langton ...Show more

Built on Faith

$65.00 AUD

Category: Australian

Breaker Morant by Peter FitzSimons

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian

The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero? Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Qu eensland in 1883 in his early twenties, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. When appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa, Morant joined up, first with the South Australian Mounted Rifles and then with a South African irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers. In September 1901 Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day. Does Breaker Morant deserve his iconic status? Who was Harry Morant? What events and passions led him to a conflict that was essentially an Imperial war, played out on a distant continent under a foreign flag? Was he a scapegoat for British war crimes or a criminal himself? With his trademark brilliant command of story, Peter FitzSimons unravels the many myths and fictions that surround the life of Harry Morant. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'The Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing - and, in the hands of this master storyteller, make compelling reading.           ...Show more

Exploring Gallipoli: Australian Army's Battlefield Guide to Gallipoli by Lt Col Glenn Wahlert

$19.99 AUD

Category: Australian | Series: Australian Army Campaign

This book provides both practical touring information on Gallipoli for the independent traveller, and a guide to the amazing First World War Anzac battlefields. Written by a serving Australian Army officer with over 30 years soldiering experience, and now a historian with the Australian Army History Uni t, Lieutenant Colonel Glenn Wahlert presents a unique view of the campaign and of the key events that occurred on the ground. It includes detailed information on the key sites at Gallipoli, including recommended routes, optional walks and drives, maps, digital images, original art work and even sound files to download on to your MP3 player. Information and suggestions on accommodation, transport, restaurants, entertainment and sightseeing are also provided to enable you to plan your holiday and make the most of your time on the Peninsula. ...Show more

From Great Depths by M. McCarthy

$70.00 AUD

Category: Australian

Long considered one of the world's most significant wartime mysteries, the fateful dusk encounter between HMAS Sydney (II) and the German raider Kormoran stands as Australia's single largest naval disaster. The loss of both ships on the night of 19 November 1941 with Sydney's full war complement of men and boys sparked a growing mystery spanning sixty-six years for Australia's most famous fighting ship and for one of Germany's best known raiders. The 2008 discovery of the wrecks captured the imagination of two young researchers who dreamt and then lived their impossible dream — bringing what lies in total darkness on the seabed nearly three kilometres beneath the waves and over 100 kilometres from the coast to the surface for all to experience. This had never been done before. Needing a state-of-the-art ship and its crew, the most modern of underwater vehicles, state-of-the-art visual modeling and reconstructive imaging technology, an unheard of array of mounted lighting and cameras, and the support and services of some of Australia's leading scientists, maritime archaeologists and historians, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. From Great Depths features the results of their astounding success, presenting absolutely stunning underwater photography and fascinating new discoveries, brought together with inspiring and heartrending personal accounts of wartime service on the ships, and their fierce battle with the devastating loss of over 700 souls from both sides. ...Show more

Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia by David Hunt

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian

Winner, 2014 Indie Award for Non-Fiction   Girt. No word could better capture the essence of Australia...   In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia's past, from megafauna to Macquarie - the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have m ade us who we are.   Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of "felony of sock," and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia. It recounts the misfortunes of the escaped Irish convicts who set out to walk from Sydney to China, guided only by a hand-drawn paper compass, and explains the role of the coconut in Australia's only military coup.   Our nation's beginnings are steeped in the strange, the ridiculous and the frankly bizarre. Girt proudly reclaims these stories for all of us.   Not to read it would be un-Australian.   Shortlisted, 2014 ABA Nielsen BookData Bookseller's Choice Award, 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, 2014 Australian Book Industry Awards.   'Girt ... cuts an irreverent swath through the facts, fools, fantasies and frauds that made this country what it is today, hoisting sacred cows on their own petards and otherwise sawing the legs off Lady Macquarie's chair. I was transported.' -Shane Maloney, the Age Best Books of 2013   'Girt is a ripping read... a humorous history that is accessible enough to share with the eight-year-old. Hunt's writing interests span comedy, politics and history, a happy triumvirate when your subject is Australia.' -Stephen Romei in the Australian   David Hunt is an unusually tall and handsome man who likes writing his own bios for all the books he has written. David is the author of Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia, which won the 2014 Indie Award for non-fiction and was shortlisted in both the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and Australian Book Industry Awards. True Girt, the sequel, was published in 2016, as was a book for children, The Nose Pixies. David has a birthmark that looks like Tasmania, only smaller and not as far south. ...Show more