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Black Snake
by Leo Kennedy and Mic LoobyAuthor Leo Kennedy is the great-grandson of Sergeant Michael Kennedy. Raised in the shadow of his great-grandfather’s murder, Leo witnessed the deep psychological wounds inflicted on successive generations of his family – and the families of other victims – as the Ned Kelly myth grew around them and the sacrifice of their loved ones was forgotten. Leo himself was nicknamed ‘Red Ned’ at school and taunted for being on the wrong side of Australian history. Now, for the first time, and in brilliant prose that brings these historical episodes to life, Black Snake challenges the legend of Ned Kelly. Instead of celebrating an heroic man of the people, it gives voice to the victims of a merciless gang of outlaws. This is a captivating true story, gleaned from meticulous research and family history, of two men from similar backgrounds whose legacies were distorted by history.
Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket
by Christian Ryan**Voted Wisden Cricket Monthly's best cricket book ever in 2019**WINNER, BEST CRICKET BOOK, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010_________________Golden Boy is a blistering exposé of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes._________________Kim Hughes was one of the most majestic and daring batsmen to play for Australia in the last 40 years. Golden curled and boyishly handsome, his rise and fall as captain and player is unparalleled in cricketing history. He played several innings that count as all-time classics, but it's his tearful resignation from the captaincy that is remembered.Insecure but arrogant, abrasive but charming; in Hughes' character were the seeds of his own destruction. Yet was Hughes' fall partly due to those around him, men who are themselves legends in Australia's cricketing history? Lillee, Marsh, the Chappells, all had their agendas, all were unhappy with his selection and performance as captain - evidenced by Dennis Lillee's tendency to aim bouncers relentlessly at Hughes' head during net practice.Hughes' arrival on the Test scene coincided with the most turbulent time Australian cricket has ever seen - first Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, then the rebel tours to South Africa. Both had dramatic effects on Hughes' career. As he traces the high points and the low, Christian Ryan sheds new and fascinating light on the cricket - and the cricketers - of the times.
Sheila: The Australian ingenue who bewitched British society
by Robert WainwrightVivacious, confident and striking, young Australian Sheila Chisholm met her first husband, Lord Loughborough, in Egypt during the First World War. Arriving in London as a young married woman, she quickly conquered English society, and would spend the next half a century inside the palaces, mansions and clubs of the elite. Her clandestine affair with young Bertie, the future George VI, caused ruptures at Buckingham Palace, with King George offering his son the title Duke of York in exchange for never hearing of Sheila again.She subsequently became Lady Milbanke, one of London's most admired fashion icons and society fundraisers and ended her days as Princess Dimitri of Russia, juggling her royal duties with a successful career as a travel agent. Throughout her remarkable life, Sheila won the hearts of men ranging from Rudolph Valentino and Vincent Astor to Prince Obolensky, and maintained longstanding friendships with Evelyn Waugh, Noël Coward, Idina Sackville and Nancy Mitford.A story unknown to most, Sheila is a spellbinding account of an utterly fascinating woman.
Error Australis
by Ben PobjieWe’re engrossed with reality TV these days, yet we so often neglect the greatest reality of all: the reality of our nation and how it came to be. In Error Australis, TV columnist, comedian and history buff Ben Pobjie recaps the history of Australia from its humble beginnings as a small patch of rapidly cooling rock to its modern-day status as one of the major powers of the sub-Asian super-Antarctic next-to-Africa region. As thrilling as it is to see Delta Goodrem’s chair turn around, there’s an argument that World War Two was even more exciting and, like any good recapper, Pobjie provides an immediate, visceral sense of what it was like to be there in the moment at our nation’s defining events. It is only by looking at where we have been that we can understand who we are, what we stand for and why nothing seems to work. Error Australis is a scholarly and hilarious account of a young nation that has spent many years seeking its place in the world, and almost as many years not liking what it has found.
100 Weirdest Tales from Across Australia
by Ben PobjieTales of the strange, unnerving and downright bizarre from one of the weirdest places on EarthFish falling out of the sky, joggers relieving themselves on your doorstep, mysterious monsters constantly springing from the shadows, spooky lights and ill-conceived toast spreads: these are just some of the things you can expect on any given day in our surreal southern land.In 100 Weirdest Tales from Across Australia, comedy writer and accredited weirdness expert Ben Pobjie delves deep into Australia's past and present to serve up the weirdest stories of all, which will leave you smacking your gob with one hand while scratching your head with the other.
100 Tales from Australia's Most Haunted Places
by Ben PobjieFrom the ghostly black horse of Sutton Forest to the butcher of Adelaide Street, a haunted Brisbane lift to the chilling experiments carried out by Doctor Blood of the North Kapunda Hotel, Australia abounds in spooky stories that are all unnervingly based in fact and tied to real places you can visit or avoid. In 100 Tales from Australia's Most Haunted Places, comedy writer and general scaredy-cat Ben Pobjie communes with the spirit world to send a shiver down your spine. A book best read with the light left on.
The Ballad of Abdul Wade: The Incredible True Story of Australia's unsung Pioneering Heroes - The Afghan Camelleers
by Ryan ButtaWhen Afghan entrepreneur Abdul Wade first brought his camel trains to the outback, he was hailed as a hero. Horses couldn't access many remote settlements, especially those stricken by flood or drought, and camel trains rode to the rescue time and time again.But with success came fierce opposition fuelled by prejudice. The camel was not even classed as an animal under Australian law, and, in a climate of colonial misinformation, hyperbole and fear, camel drivers like Wade were shown almost as little respect. Yet all the while, for those in need, the ships of the desert continued to appear on the outback horizon.After his interest was piqued by a nineteenth-century photo of a camel train in a country town, Ryan Butta found himself on the trail of Australia's earliest Afghan camel drivers. Separating the bulldust from the bush poetry, he reveals the breadth and depth of white Australian protectionism and prejudice. Told with flair and authority, this gritty alternative history defies the standard horse-powered folklore to reveal the untold debt this country owes to the humble dromedary, its drivers and those who brought them here.
Whatever Happened to Ned Kelly’s Head?
by Eamon EvansAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publisher.
Last Letter to a Reader
by Gerald MurnaneIn the first days of spring in his eighty-second year, Gerald Murnane – perhaps the greatest living writer of English prose – began a project that would round off his strange career as a novelist. He would read all of his books in turn and prepare a report on each. His original intention was to lodge the reports in two of his legendary filing cabinets: in the Chronological Archive, which documents his life as a whole, and the Literary Archive, which is devoted to everything he has written. As the reports grew, however, they themselves took on the form of a book, a book as beguiling and hallucinatory, in its way, as the works on which they were meant to report. These miniature memoirs or stories lead the reader through the capacious territory Murnane refers to as his mind: they dwell on the circumstances that gave rise to his writing, on images and associations, on Murnane’s own theories of fiction, and then memories of a deeply personal kind. The final essay is, of course, on Last Letter to a Reader itself: it considers the elation and exhilaration that accompany the act of writing, and offers a moving finale to what must surely be Murnane’s last work, as death approaches. ‘Help me, dear one,’ he writes, ‘to endure patiently my going back to my own sort of heaven.’
Nagasaki: The Forgotten Prisoners
by John WillisThis is one of the most remarkable untold stories of the Second World war. At 11.02 am on an August morning in 1945 America dropped the world's most powerful atomic bomb on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki. The most European city in Japan was flattened to the ground 'as if it had been swept aside by a broom'. More than 70,000 Japanese were killed. At the time, hundreds of Allied prisoners of war were working close to the bomb's detonation point, as forced labourers in the shipyards and foundries of Nagasaki.These men, from the Dales of Yorkshire and the dusty outback of Australia, from the fields of Holland and the remote towns of Texas, had already endured an extraordinary lottery of life and death that had changed their lives forever. They had lived through nearly four years of malnutrition, disease, and brutality. Now their prison home was the target of America's second atomic bomb.In one of the greatest survival stories of the Second World War, we trace their astonishing experiences back to bloody battles in the Malayan jungle, before the dramatic fall of Fortress Singapore, the mighty symbol of the British Empire. This abject capitulation was followed by surrender in Java and elsewhere in the East, condemning the captives to years of cruel imprisonment by the Japanese. Their lives grew evermore perilous when thousands of prisoners were shipped off to build the infamous Thai-Burma Railway, including the Bridge on the River Kwai. If that was not harsh enough, POWs were then transported to Japan in the overcrowded holds of what were called hell ships. These rusty buckets were regularly sunk by Allied submarines, and thousands of prisoners lived through unimaginable horror, adrift on the ocean for days. Some still had to endure the final supreme test, the world's second atomic bomb.The prisoners in Nagasaki were eyewitnesses to one of the most significant events in modern history but writing notes or diaries in a Japanese prison camp was dangerous. To avoid detection, one Allied prisoner buried his notes in the grave of a fellow POW to be reclaimed after the war, another wrote his diary in Irish. Now, using unpublished and rarely seen notes, interviews, and memoirs, this unique book weaves together a powerful chorus of voices to paint a vivid picture of defeat, endurance, and survival against astonishing odds.
A Perth Camera
by Richard OffenA Perth Camera is a treasure trove of rediscovered images by the late Ernie Polis from a lifetime spent photographing the city.
The Dog Runner
by Bren MacDibbleElla and her brother, Emery, are alone in a city that's starving to death. If they are going to survive, they must get away, up-country, to find Emery's mum. But how can two kids travel such big distances across a dry, barren and dangerous landscape? Well, when you've got five big doggos and a dry-land dogsled, the answer is you go mushing. But when Emery is injured, Ella must find a way to navigate them through rough terrain, and even rougher encounters with desperate people. From the author of 'How to Bee', an intense and thrilling adventure with an important environmental message, set in an all-too-possible dystopian future Australia.
The Dog Runner
by Bren MacDibbleElla and her brother, Emery, are alone in a city that's starving to death. If they are going to survive, they must get away, up-country, to find Emery's mum. But how can two kids travel such big distances across a dry, barren and dangerous landscape? Well, when you've got five big doggos and a dry-land dogsled, the answer is you go mushing. But when Emery is injured, Ella must find a way to navigate them through rough terrain, and even rougher encounters with desperate people. From the author of 'How to Bee', an intense and thrilling adventure with an important environmental message, set in an all-too-possible dystopian future Australia.
The Breath of Night
by Michael ArdittiPhilip Seward travels to the Philippines to investigate the case of a missionary priest imprisoned for murder, where he is drawn into a labyrinth of vice, violence, and corruption where nothing and nobody are what they seem.'Part Conrad, part Waugh, part Greene, and pure genius' Independent on Sunday'This is Arditti's most dazzling novel to date because of the scale of his ambition and his triumph in pulling it off' Peter Stanford, Daily TelegraphWhile working as a missionary priest in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship, Julian Tremayne championed the Communist rebels and found himself imprisoned for murder. Now, three decades later, following Julian's death, a cult develops around him, even calling for sainthood. When Philip Seward goes to investigate on behalf of Julian's family, he is drawn into a labyrinth of vice, violence, and corruption where nothing and nobody are what they seem. Enriched by a gallery of engaging characters ranging from priests to prostitutes, GIs to gangsters, and street children to Imelda Marcos, this outstanding novel is at once a gripping psychological thriller, a challenging moral mystery, and an unforgettable voyage into a dark and exotic landscape.
Bow Down Shadrach
by Joy Cowley** Winner of the New Zealand Children's Book of the Year 1990** A classic junior fiction favourite from multi-award winning New Zealand children's author, Joy Cowley.Shadrach is a very old circus-trained Clydesdale horse, and the favourite family pet. When Hannah discovers that Shadrach has been sold to a dog food factory, she decides to mount a heroic rescue and enlists the help of her two younger brothers. From the beginning their plans go seriously wrong. By the time they've argued with the repulsive Wuff Stuff man, hidden Shadrach in a church and a caravan, and floated him on a mussel barge they're in desperate need of rescuing themselves.
Daughters of Erebus
by Paul HolmesHow 287 people died in the air crash on Mt Erebus. What caused the crash and who covered it up
Kiwi Battlefields
by Dr Ron PalenskiThe history behind the major battlefields in which New Zealand soldiers fought
Is that Bike Diesel, Mate?: One Man, One Bike, and the First Lap Around Australia on Used Cooking Oil
by Paul CarterOi, mate, is that monstrosity diesel? From the author of the bestsellers Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse and This Is Not a Drill, this is the eagerly awaited next installment of Paul Carter's rollicking life.Take one mad adventurer and a motorbike that runs on bio fuel (cooking oil i.e. chip fat to you and me) and send them with one filmmaker on a road trip around Australia just to see what happens. What you get is a story full of outback characters, implausible (but true) situations, unlikely events and unfortunate breakdowns, all at a break neck pace. Never one to sit still for long, this is what Paul Carter did next.Whether you've been shocked, delighted, entertained, horrified - or all of the above - by Paul's stories whether from oil rigs or the road one thing is for sure, they are always high octane adventures.
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!
Prince of Homburg (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Dennis KellyHeroic commander of the Prussian cavalry, the Prince of Homburg dreams of victory, glory and fame. But reckless disobedience during a crucial military operation leads the Prince into his greatest battle yet. The creative team behind the Donmar’s critically acclaimed production of Life Is A Dream present Von Kleist’s poetic masterpiece, which is considered to be one of the most haunting and beautiful plays of the nineteenth century, exploring honour, courage, ambition and love. Adapted for stage by acclaimed British writer Dennis Kelly, this is an exciting new adaptation of a classic of European literature.
Fatherland (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Tom HollowayTogether we have something and share a passion that other people will never understand' Mark and Angela are a father and daughter grappling with a painful past and fragile future. Tonight, an innocent evening of ice cream and DVDs derails quickly into dangerous territory in this chilling new story about a father who loved too deeply.
The Australian Army in World War I (Men-at-Arms)
by Robert Fleming Mike ChappellThe importance of the Australian contribution to the Allied war effort during World War I should never be underestimated. Some 400,000 Australians volunteered for active duty, an astonishing 13 per cent of the entire (white) male population, a number so great that the Australian government was never forced to rely on conscription. Casualties were an astonishing 52 per cent of all those who served, ensuring that the effects of the war would be felt long after the armistice. In particular, their epic endeavour at Gallipoli in 1915 was the nation's founding legend, and the ANZACs went on to distinguish themselves both on the Western Front and in General Allenby's great cavalry campaign against the Turks in the Middle East. Their uniforms and insignia were also significantly different from those of the British Army and provide the basis for a unique set of artwork plates.
Dreamscapes
by Tamara McKinleyIf you love Lesley Pearse, you're sure to fall for Tamara McKinley!Catriona was born into the world of show business, having made her first appearance on stage in her father's arms when she was only minutes old. And although life has never been easy for Catriona, it seems she's finally made her big break: her unique voice has captured the attention of a Sydney opera company, and the only place to go is up. But when scandalous secrets from her teenage years threaten to destroy everything she's worked so hard to achieve, she learns she will have to fight to keep her rightful place at the top.
A City by City Guide to Living and Working in Australia
by Roberta DumanMigration to Australia is not always straightforward, nor is it the right choice for everyone. This book is designed to assist people in making an informed decision ahead of taking the huge step to relocate. It will equip readers with enough information to prepare them for the day-to-day realities of living and working in Australia, as this often turns out to be very different from what was expected. Part One is a general overview to Living in Australia and details the complex visa process, finance, healthcare, lifestyle, property and education. It also contains up to date information on the current economic situation, which industries are on the rise and decline, how to go about your job search from the UK and Australia, where to look for work and how to increase your opportunities and secure the correct visa. Part Two examines Australia's main cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and Tasmania) and provides comprehensive information about what to expect from each in terms of lifestyle, employment opportunities, recreation, residential options and information on education and childcare for those with families. Written from personal experience, this book seeks to reduce some of the stress involved in making the momentous decision to live / work in Australia and offers valuable advice and tips on how to save time and money.
Emigrating To New Zealand: An Independent Guide
by Steve HorrellThis book is an indispensible guide to the roller coaster ride that is the emigration process. It covers all the topics and issues that anyone thinking of emigrating to New Zealand will need to know about, from the discussion phase through to making friends when you're there. - Deciding to go - Applying for a visa - Preparing to leave - Taking your pets - Arriving in New Zealand - House hunting and buying - Education and health - Cars and driving - Profiles of major cities and regions This thoroughly revised and updated new edition now includes a new chapter on how to find a job in New Zealand.