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The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific
by Paul TherouxPaul Theroux invites us to join him on one of his most exotic and tantalizing adventures exploring the coasts and blue lagoons of the Pacific Islands, and taking up residence to discover the secrets of these isles.Theroux is a mesmerizing narrator – brilliant, witty, keenly perceptive as he floats through Gauguin landscapes, sails in the wake of Captain Cook and recalls the bewitching tales of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson. Alone in his kayak, paddling to seldom visited shores, he glides through time and space, discovering a world of islands, their remarkable people, and in turn, happiness.‘A sharp, fascinating and highly entertaining book … Theroux at his best’ Daily Telegraph.
In Pursuit of a Dream: A Time in Australia
by Alexandra Fanny BrodskyA vibrant and moving memoir of life in Australia and Europe in the middle of the twentieth century.In Pursuit of a Dream begins with a brief portrait of the author's family circumstances after the Second World War, when they were finally reunited after being forced into hiding to escape the Gestapo. This appealing personal history combines autobiography with a picture of the international situation in the middle of the twentieth century. After some time spent visiting friends and family in war-torn France and Belgium, the author and her parents obtained passes to join her brother in Australia on a journey which was to change her life completely. Through her eyes we experience the sea voyage and Sydney life in the 1940s and gain an original perspective on Australia during this period. Her vivid descriptions clearly convey the impact of post-war migration, and the story of her subsequent return to Europe and later marriage to the Australian scientist, Henry Harris, make this a most attractive and authentic cultural history.
Scenes from the Back of Beyond (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Meredith OakesBill is sustained by his deep sense of a wider culture and an improving world. The only thing the human race needs to do is learn. When he meets a person who embodies this idea, he naturally likes them. Especially if his wife doesn't. Set at the end of the 1950s, Scenes from the Back of Beyond explores the comfort, hopes and fragility of family life in a new Sydney suburb. A production opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London in November 2006.
Thumbs Up Australia: Hitchhiking the Outback
by Tom ParryOn the Road meets Down Under in this really rough guide to the adventures of an enthusiastic hitchhiker and his reluctant girlfriend on their quest for the real Australia. Hitching lifts with the desert's dodgiest drivers and taking breaks in the roughest roadhouses, this is Tom Parry's witty, warts-and-all tale of hitchhiking 8,000 miles across - and around - the Australian outback with his thumb, his backpack and his French girlfriend, Katia. As the couple hitch their way around the near empty highways, they encounter as wide a cross-section of Aussie society as you could ever hope to meet. In cattle stations, Aboriginal communities, remote waterholes, caravan parks, hippy communes and roadhouses, they see a country that remains as extraordinary today as it was for the first nineteenth century settlers. Loosely following the routes carved out by the legendary explorers who first traversed the great continent, the couple get to grips with the country's fascinating history. Set against a backdrop of the real Australia - not 'as seen on TV'- "Thumbs Up Australia" is full of wonderful anecdotes and endearing tales of some of the country's most idiosyncratic characters, from the grizzled Aboriginal elder with his tales of dreamtime, to an amphetamine-swallowing road train driver. And at the end of their journey, it is ironically Katia who suggests thumbing a lift to the airport!
Being Australian: Narratives of national identity
by Catriona ElderAfter a century of speculation by writers, filmmakers, travelers and scholars, being Australian' has become a recognisable shorthand for a group of national characteristics. Now, in an era of international terrorism, being seen as un-Australian' has become a potent rhetorical weapon for some, and a badge of honour for others.Catriona Elder explores the origins, meaning and effects of the many stories we tell about ourselves, and how they have changed over time. She outlines some of the traditional stories and their role in Australian nationalism, and she shows how concepts of egalitarianism, peaceful settlement and sporting prowess have been used to create a national identity. Elder also investigates the cultural and social perspectives that have been used to critique dominant accounts of Australian identity, including ideas of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. She shows how these critiques have been, in turn, queried in recent years. Being Australian is an ideal introduction to studying Australia for anyone interested in understanding Australian society, culture and history. A clever work: incisive and original. At a time when Australian identities have never been more debated, Elder finds an open way through the closed doors which often restrict cultural representations of Australian-ness.'Professor Adam Shoemaker, Dean of Arts, ANU This is a timely and significant new analysis essential reading on issues of identity and our own anxieties about national belonging and what it means to be Australian' in a globalising world.'Kate Darian-Smith, Professor of Australian Studies and History, University of Melbourne
Being Australian: Narratives of national identity
by Catriona ElderAfter a century of speculation by writers, filmmakers, travelers and scholars, being Australian' has become a recognisable shorthand for a group of national characteristics. Now, in an era of international terrorism, being seen as un-Australian' has become a potent rhetorical weapon for some, and a badge of honour for others.Catriona Elder explores the origins, meaning and effects of the many stories we tell about ourselves, and how they have changed over time. She outlines some of the traditional stories and their role in Australian nationalism, and she shows how concepts of egalitarianism, peaceful settlement and sporting prowess have been used to create a national identity. Elder also investigates the cultural and social perspectives that have been used to critique dominant accounts of Australian identity, including ideas of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. She shows how these critiques have been, in turn, queried in recent years. Being Australian is an ideal introduction to studying Australia for anyone interested in understanding Australian society, culture and history. A clever work: incisive and original. At a time when Australian identities have never been more debated, Elder finds an open way through the closed doors which often restrict cultural representations of Australian-ness.'Professor Adam Shoemaker, Dean of Arts, ANU This is a timely and significant new analysis essential reading on issues of identity and our own anxieties about national belonging and what it means to be Australian' in a globalising world.'Kate Darian-Smith, Professor of Australian Studies and History, University of Melbourne
Gender, crime and empire: Convicts, settlers and the state in early colonial Australia (Studies in Imperialism #69)
by Kirsty ReidBetween 1803 and 1853, some 80,000 convicts were transported to Van Diemen’s Land. Revising established models of the colonies, which tend to depict convict women as a peculiarly oppressed group, Gender, crime and empire argues that convict men and women in fact shared much in common. Placing men and women, ideas about masculinity, femininity, sexuality and the body, in comparative perspective, this book argues that historians must take fuller account of class to understand the relationships between gender and power. The book explores the ways in which ideas about fatherhood and household order initially informed the state’s model of order, and the reasons why this foundered. It considers the shifting nature of state policies towards courtship, relationships and attempts at family formation which subsequently became matters of class conflict. It goes on to explore the ways in which ideas about gender and family informed liberal and humanitarian critiques of the colonies from the 1830s and 1840s and colonial demands for abolition and self-government.
Moon Tahiti: Including The Cook Islands (Moon Handbooks)
by David StanleySouth Pacific expert David Stanley knows the best way to vacation in Tahiti, from browsing the Papeete market to snorkeling off the island of Moorea. David also includes unique trip ideas like The Best of French Polynesia and Underwater in the Tuamotu Islands. Complete with details on taking lagoon tours and jeep safaris, lounging in Polynesian spas, and partaking in lavish seafood buffets, Moon Tahiti gives travelers the tools they need to create a more personal and memorable experience.
Other People's County
by Lee FoxFifteen-year-old Lola lives in a quiet, rural town with her mother, her over-achieving older brother, Daniel, and her annoying but lovable younger brother, Toby. When Lola’s mother receives an offer of a few months’ work as a store manager on a remote Aboriginal community, the family – except for Daniel who stays home to finish exams – fly to Wandana with a sense of anticipation and adventure. But Wandana is no holiday resort. In the red dust and blazing heat of central Australia, Lola and her family are confronted with enormous social and cultural differences, as well as a dark form of racism they have never encountered before. Misunderstanding and violence threaten to end their adventure soon after it begun. Yet from somewhere in this harsh place, hands reach out to the newcomers. Can Lola and her family grasp those hands across the cultural divide? Lee Fox’s realistic writing and portrayal of an indigenous community will leave readers engrossed in this heart-warming story.
Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous sovereignty matters
by Aileen Moreton-Robinson; Rachel Fensham; Jon StrattonIndigenous rights in Australia are at a crossroads. Over the past decade, neo-liberal governments have reasserted their claim to land in Australia, and refuse to either negotiate with the Indigenous owners or to make amends for the damage done by dispossession. Many Indigenous communities are in a parlous state, under threat both physically and culturally.In Sovereign Subjects some of Indigenous Australia's emerging and well-known critical thinkers examine the implications for Indigenous people of continuing to live in a state founded on invasion. They show how for Indigenous people, self-determination, welfare dependency, representation, cultural maintenance, history writing, reconciliation, land ownership and justice are all inextricably linked to the original act of dispossession by white settlers and the ongoing loss of sovereignty.At a time when the old left political agenda has run its course, and the new right is looking increasingly morally bankrupt, Sovereign Subjects sets a new rights agenda for Indigenous politics and Indigenous studies.
Sovereign Subjects: Indigenous sovereignty matters
by Aileen Moreton-RobinsonIndigenous rights in Australia are at a crossroads. Over the past decade, neo-liberal governments have reasserted their claim to land in Australia, and refuse to either negotiate with the Indigenous owners or to make amends for the damage done by dispossession. Many Indigenous communities are in a parlous state, under threat both physically and culturally.In Sovereign Subjects some of Indigenous Australia's emerging and well-known critical thinkers examine the implications for Indigenous people of continuing to live in a state founded on invasion. They show how for Indigenous people, self-determination, welfare dependency, representation, cultural maintenance, history writing, reconciliation, land ownership and justice are all inextricably linked to the original act of dispossession by white settlers and the ongoing loss of sovereignty.At a time when the old left political agenda has run its course, and the new right is looking increasingly morally bankrupt, Sovereign Subjects sets a new rights agenda for Indigenous politics and Indigenous studies.
The Vietnam Years: From the jungle to the Australian suburbs
by Michael CaulfieldThe Vietnam War was the longest and most divisive war in our history. Almost 60,000 Australians served and more than 500 were killed. At home, thousands protested against the war and conscription and hundreds were sent to jail. THE VIETNAM YEARS is the story of both sides of that war, from the vicious fighting of the jungle patroles and the bravery shown by so many Australians at the famous Battle of Long Tan, to families back home, ripped apart by confusion and anger. From Vung Tau to Nui Dat, from Bankstown to Broadmeadows, this is a book about Australians and for Australians.
Walking with the ANZACS: The authoritative guide to the Australian battlefields of the Western Front
by Mat McLachlan'[Mat McLachlan's] knowledge of the front is comprehensive' - Sydney Morning HeraldA complete guide to the Australian battlefields of the Western Front 1916-18.Walking with the ANZACs aims to become the new essential companion for Australians visiting the Western Front. Each of the 14 most important Australian battlefields is covered with descriptions of the battles and Australia’s involvement in it.The book presents a well-illustrated walking tour across the old battlefields. The tours are designed along easily accessible walking routes and show readers battlefield landmarks that still exist, memorials to the men who fought there and the cemeteries where many of them still lie. In this way the visitor will see the battlefield in much the same way as the original ANZACs did, and gain a greater appreciation of the site’s significance. Importantly, the tours are not written for military experts, but for ordinary visitors whose military knowledge may be limited.More than just a handy travel guide, Walking with the ANZACs is an absorbing read for armchair travellers and students of the First World War who may not have had the opportunity to visit the battle fields and walk in the footsteps of the first ANZACs.
Australian Literature: Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism (Oxford Studies In Postcolonial Literatures Ser.)
by Graham HugganThe Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English. In a provocative contribution to the series, Graham Huggan presents fresh readings of an outstanding, sometimes deeply unsettling national literature whose writers and readers just as unmistakably belong to the wider world. Australian literature is not the unique province of Australian readers and critics; nor is its exclusive task to provide an internal commentary on changing national concerns. Huggan's book adopts a transnational approach, motivated by postcolonial interests, in which contemporary ideas taken from postcolonial criticism and critical race theory are productively combined and imaginatively transformed. Rejecting the fashionable view that Australia is not, and never will be, postcolonial, Huggan argues on the contrary that Australian literature, like other settler literatures, requires close attention to postcolonial methods and concerns. A postcolonial approach to Australian literature, he suggests, is more than just a case for a more inclusive nationalism; it also involves a general acknowledgement of the nation's changed relationship to an increasingly globalized world. As such, the book helps to deprovincialize Australian literary studies. Australian Literature also contributes to debates about the continuing history of racism in Australia-a history in which the nation's literature has played a constitutive role, as both product and producer of racial tensions and anxieties, nowhere more visible than in the discourse it has produced about race, both within and beyond the national context.
Alone on a Wide Wide Sea
by Michael MorpurgoDiscover the beautiful stories of Michael Morpurgo, author of Warhorse and the nation’s favourite storyteller. How far would you go to find yourself? The lyrical, life-affirming new novel from the bestselling author of Private Peaceful
Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse 2003-2008
by Clive JamesClive James, our most brilliant prose stylist, is also a naturally gifted poet, and Angels Over Elsinore: Collected Verse 2003-2008 is his most accomplished collection of poetry to date. From reminiscences of his Australian childhood and elegies for friends and family to hilarious observations on the state of the language in the twenty-first century and reflections on art, metaphysics, science and faith, Angels Over Elsinore is simultaneousIy witty, passionate and provocative. Fired by the same energy and rigorous intelligence as his prose, his verse displays a breathtaking range – but for all its dazzling variety, one theme sings through James’s inexhaustible fascination with his fellow humans.
Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia
by Diane J. Austin-BroosThe Arrernte people of Central Australia first encountered Europeans in the 1860s as groups of explorers, pastoralists, missionaries, and laborers invaded their land. During that time the Arrernte were the subject of intense curiosity, and the earliest accounts of their lives, beliefs, and traditions were a seminal influence on European notions of the primitive. The first study to address the Arrernte’s contemporary situation, Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past also documents the immense sociocultural changes they have experienced over the past hundred years. Employing ethnographic and archival research, Diane Austin-Broos traces the history of the Arrernte as they have transitioned from a society of hunter-gatherers to members of the Hermannsburg Mission community to their present, marginalized position in the modern Australian economy. While she concludes that these wrenching structural shifts led to the violence that now marks Arrernte communities, she also brings to light the powerful acts of imagination that have sustained a continuing sense of Arrernte identity.
Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia (The\bush School Series In The Economics Of Public Policy)
by Diane J. Austin-BroosThe Arrernte people of Central Australia first encountered Europeans in the 1860s as groups of explorers, pastoralists, missionaries, and laborers invaded their land. During that time the Arrernte were the subject of intense curiosity, and the earliest accounts of their lives, beliefs, and traditions were a seminal influence on European notions of the primitive. The first study to address the Arrernte’s contemporary situation, Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past also documents the immense sociocultural changes they have experienced over the past hundred years. Employing ethnographic and archival research, Diane Austin-Broos traces the history of the Arrernte as they have transitioned from a society of hunter-gatherers to members of the Hermannsburg Mission community to their present, marginalized position in the modern Australian economy. While she concludes that these wrenching structural shifts led to the violence that now marks Arrernte communities, she also brings to light the powerful acts of imagination that have sustained a continuing sense of Arrernte identity.
Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past: Invasion, Violence, and Imagination in Indigenous Central Australia (The\bush School Series In The Economics Of Public Policy)
by Diane J. Austin-BroosThe Arrernte people of Central Australia first encountered Europeans in the 1860s as groups of explorers, pastoralists, missionaries, and laborers invaded their land. During that time the Arrernte were the subject of intense curiosity, and the earliest accounts of their lives, beliefs, and traditions were a seminal influence on European notions of the primitive. The first study to address the Arrernte’s contemporary situation, Arrernte Present, Arrernte Past also documents the immense sociocultural changes they have experienced over the past hundred years. Employing ethnographic and archival research, Diane Austin-Broos traces the history of the Arrernte as they have transitioned from a society of hunter-gatherers to members of the Hermannsburg Mission community to their present, marginalized position in the modern Australian economy. While she concludes that these wrenching structural shifts led to the violence that now marks Arrernte communities, she also brings to light the powerful acts of imagination that have sustained a continuing sense of Arrernte identity.
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
by Christina ThompsonCome On Shore and We Will Kill And Eat You All is a sensitive and vibrant portrayal of the cultural collision between Westerners and Maoris, from Abel Tasman's discovery of New Zealand in 1642 to the author's unlikely romance with a Maori man. An intimate account of two centuries of friction and fascination, this intriguing and unpredictable book weaves a path through time and around the world in a rich exploration of the past and the future that it leads to.
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
by Christina ThompsonA beautifully written, fiercely intelligent and boldly conceived book that puts the author's unlikely marriage to a Maori man into the context of the history of Western colonization of New Zealand and the South Pacific. Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All is the story of the cultural collision between Westerners and the Maoris of New Zealand, told partly as a history of the complex and bloody period of contact between Europeans and the Maoris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and partly as the story of Christina Thompson's marriage to a Maori man. As an American graduate student studying history in Australia, Thompson traveled to New Zealand and met a Maori known as "Seven." Their relationship is one of opposites: he is a tradesman, she is an intellectual; he comes from a background of rural poverty, she from one of middleclass privilege; he is a "native," she descends directly from "colonizers." Nevertheless, they shared a similar sense of adventure and a willingness to depart from the customs of their families and forge a life together on their own. In this book, which grows out of decades of reading and research, Thompson explores cultural displacement through the ages and the fascinating history of Europeans in the South Pacific, beginning with Abel Tasman's discovery of New Zealand in 1642 and Cook's circumnavigation of 1770. Transporting us back and forth in time and around the world, from Australia to Hawaii to tribal New Zealand and finally to a house in New England that has ghosts of its own, Come on Shore brings to life a lush variety of characters and settings. Yet at its core, it is the story of two people who meet, fall in love, and are forever changed."A multilayered, highly informative and insightful book that blends memoir, historical and travel narrative...vivid and meticulously researched."--San Francisco Chronicle
HMAS Sydney
by Tom FrameThe complete and authoritative account of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney, and the recent finding of her wreck.On 19 November 1941, the pride of the Australian Navy, the light cruiser Sydney, fought a close-quarters battle with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran off Carnarvon on the West Australian coast. Both ships sank – and not one of the 645 men on board the Sydney survived. Was Sydney’s captain guilty of negligence by allowing his ship to manoeuvre within range of Kormoran’s guns? Did the Germans feign surrender before firing a torpedo at the Sydney as she prepared to despatch a boarding party? This updated edition covers the recent discovery of the wreck – with the light this sheds on the events of that day 67 years ago, and the closure it has brought to so many grieving families. ‘Tom Frame has produced the most comprehensive and compelling account of the loss of HMAS Sydney to date. His judgements are fair and his conclusions reasoned. If you only read one book on this tragic event in Australian naval history, and want all the facts and theories presented in a balanced way, Tom Frame’s book is for you’ - Vice Admiral Russ Shalders AO CSC RANR Chief of Navy, 2005-08.
More Precious Than Gold
by Val JonesThe Robertson family has lived on their New South Wales sheep and cattle property, Brindabella, for five generations. However, their continued ownership of the farm is under threat. An adjoining property has been sold and the new owners are unfriendly to say the least. Then things start to go very wrong on Brindabella. Stock begins to die and there seems to be no reasonable explanation. Facing bankruptcy and the loss of Brindabella, Ben's father commences an opal-mining venture in Coober Pedy in South Australia's remote outback. But even here mysterious mishaps plague the smooth operation of what began as a successful opal mine. In this well-rounded, gripping story of rural crisis, Val Jones writes how lives are threatened and 'accidents' occur, which make life in Coober Pedy very dangerous. Suddenly opal mining isn’t as straightforward as it seems …
Shades of the Sublime & Beautiful
by John KinsellaAustralian John Kinsella is one of the most highly regarded poets currently writing in English. Taking Edmund Burke’s 250-year old masterpiece A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful as his template, Kinsella has produced his most accomplished and broadly representative work to date. Shades of the Sublime & Beautiful is a warm, human, anecdotally rich book, concentrating many of the themes that have obsessed its author over the last twenty years: language, love, the invocation of place, the mysteries of the Australian wilderness, and our mediations between the human and natural realms. Together, these lyric meditations build towards a profound thesis on the ecology of the imagination, and are always conducted in concrete, vivid and exuberant language that is unmistakably Kinsella’s own. ‘Kinsella’s poems are a very rare feat: they are narratives of feeling. Vivid sight – of landscapes, of animals, of human forms in distant light – becomes insight. There is, often, the shock of the new. But somehow awaited, even familiar. Which is the homecoming of a true poet’ George Steiner ‘John Kinsella is an Orphic fountain, a prodigy of the imagination . . . he frequently makes me think of John Ashbery: improbable fecundity, eclecticism, and a stand that fuses populism and elitism in poetic audience’ Harold Bloom
Someone Special
by Sheila O'FlanaganSOMEONE SPECIAL by Sheila O'Flanagan is an enthralling novel about families, friends and finding love that should not be missed by readers of Veronica Henry and Marian Keyes.Romy Kilkenny loves her life in Australia - she has her dream job, a fun lifestyle, and best friend Keith who understands her better than anyone. Best of all, she couldn't be further from her family. But when a phone call summons her home at short notice, Romy's world is turned upside down. Romy has never fitted in, and with Keith too far away to give comfort, she feels like more of an outsider than ever. She also worries that the accidental half-kiss with Keith at the airport may have lost her the greatest friend she's ever had. What on earth has Romy let herself in for?What readers are saying about Someone Special: 'So many twists and turns throughout the book as well as many other smaller stories interwoven throughout. It is more than just a love story, and now my favourite book of [Sheila O'Flanagan's]' Amazon reviewer, 5 stars'Interesting story about an unusual and dysfunctional Irish family. You simply fall in love with them' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars'I liked the differences between characters, what they have gone through and how they interact when they need each other. It was my first book by Sheila O'Flanagan and I will definitely read more' Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars