The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay: The 1942 Bombing of Broome, and its Tragic Aftermath by Ian W. Shaw

$32.99 AUD

Category: Broome History

The Japanese attack on Broome is the second most deadly air raid on Australia soil in our history and yet it's almost entirely overlooked. On 3 March 1942, nine Japanese Zero planes strafed the small town planning to destroy the aerodrome and American planes. With no notice, the townsfolk could only put up minimal opposition and in an attack that lasted only an hour, almost one hundred men, women and children lost their lives. Not a single operational aircraft remained in Broome, but the shocking loss of human life can never be truly calculated. The Ghosts of Roebuck Bay tells the story of this tragedy, shining light on a story that has slipped through the cracks of history. A captivating tale of refugees and soldiers, of reputations made and lost, of survival and spirit that resonates to today. ...Show more

On Red Earth Walking - The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946-1949 by Anne Scrimgeour

$39.99 AUD

Category: History

A Pirate of Exquisite Mind : The Life of William Dampier by Diana Preston; Michael Preston

$21.99 AUD

Category: History

"William Dampier, (1651 -1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. mong many extraordinary achievements Dampier mapped the winds and the currents of the world's oceans for the first time; he led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; he was an enthusiastic naturalist and following his visit to the Galapagos islands he wrote about their wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; he was the first travel writer- A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was embraced by the literary world and became an instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - it was said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. TIDES OF FORTUNE looks at Dampier the man full of contradictions, and analyses why he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, controversy, failure and ven farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his 'exquisite refinem ...Show more

The Last Bushrangers by Mike Munro

$34.99 AUD

Category: History | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

The story of Australia's last bushranging gang - the murderous Kenniffs. Easter Sunday, 1902, deep in the Carnarvon Ranges a police constable and station manager are slain then later incinerated, their remains stuffed into saddlebags. Accused of the ghoulish crime are two members of the bushranging Ken niff gang, fast gaining notoriety as Queensland's equivalent of the Kelly gang. Yet the murders are a bold escalation from the petty fraud, horse stealing and cattle duffing the gang is known for. Starving and exhausted after three long months on the run, the brothers are finally captured, and so the wheels of justice start to turn. The story of the Kenniffs has fascinated Mike Munro for decades - ever since he found out these last bushrangers were his family. If not for Mike's grandfather illegally changing his name in shame from Kenniff to Munro, this major figure in Australian television would be known to us as Mike Kenniff. But who were Mike's relatives? What drove them to their life of crime? And were the brothers really responsible for such terrible murders? In answering these questions Mike Munro takes us back to the dawn of Federation, when bush skills and horsemanship could help outlaws escape the police, when remote pastoralists were vulnerable targets for thieves and marauders, when race and class divides were entrenched - but resented - and when brutal, feckless outlaws faced the ultimate punishment. This is a story that is both gripping and personal, and an insight into an Australia just coming of age. PRAISE FOR THE LAST BUSHRANGERS 'All families have a secret ... but Mike's is a doozy! This touching, TRUE story is a terrific read!' Di Morrissey ...Show more

Flight to Fame: Victory in the 1919 Great Air Race, England to Australia by Ross Smith; Peter Monteath (Editor)

$29.99 AUD

Category: History

 'Flight to Fame', a classic adventure story, tells the hair-raising tale of the world-first flight from England to Australia, in the words of the pilot, (Sir) Ross Smith. In March 1919, Australia's prime minister announced a prize of £10,000 for the first successful flight from Great Britain to Australia in under 30 days. Late that same year, the victorious pilots, Ross and Keith Smith, landed in Darwin to international acclaim. The 'New York Times' gushed: 'Captain Ross Smith has done a wonderful thing for the prestige of the British Empire. He must be hailed as the foremost living aviator.' Their achievement was the forerunner to the age of international air travel. During the race, Ross and his brother Keith (his co-pilot and navigator) wrote in their diaries daily, recording the journey of their four-man crew in their Vickers Vimy G-EAOU twin-engine plane, its open cockpit exposing them to snow, sleet, hail and unbearable heat. Originally published as '14,000 Miles Through the Air' (1922), Ross Smith's book recounts their danger-ridden, record-breaking journey - a mere 16 years after the Wright brothers first defied gravity for just a few seconds. This richly illustrated edition, published to coincide with the flight's centenary, is introduced and edited by historian Peter Monteath ...Show more

Outback Heroines by Sue Williams; Georgie Parker (Foreword by)

$34.99 AUD

Category: History

Horse-whispering, crocodile-hunting and single-handedly changing an 80-kilo flat tyre on a road train in 40-degree heat...there is nothing these modern-day outback women can't do.  But when it comes to hardship and heartbreak, they've endured far more than their fair share. Living and working in so me of the most remote spots in the world, they've had to become experts at turning tragedy into triumph.Our former Miss World finds a new start in the bush; an adventurer crosses one of the world's harshest deserts on camelback; a single mum becomes a truck driver to make ends meet and a former nurse takes over the famous Birdsville Hotel. This book is a tribute to the great Australian Outback from those who live and work at the heart of it.'[These women] simply took my breath away with the kind of courage, daring and resilience that have seen them overcome sometimes crushing difficulties.' Georgie Parker ...Show more

Dead Men's Silver: The Story of Australia's Greatest Shipwreck Hunter by Hugh Edwards

$35.99 AUD

Category: History

This is a romantic story of shipwreck hunting, with pieces-of-eight, Dutch ducatons, German talers, Burgundian crowns, and Spanish silver dollars lost and recovered from the sea floor. Edwards has been recognised as the 'primary finder' of the wreck of the Batavia, upon which his best-selling book Islan d of Angry Ghosts is based (and upon which Peter FitzSimons's new book is based). Along with a close look at the Batavia and other Dutch East India Company wrecks found off the WA coast, the chapters of this memoir include shipwreck adventures in the Mediterranean, Cambodia (where he was ambushed by Pol Pot) and expeditions to the Falklands and Ascension Islands in the Atlantic, where Edwards recovered the ship's bell from William Dampier's 1701 Roebuck. An expedition to the shell-battered wreck of the 1914 German cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean makes an interesting contrast with the sunken Greco-Roman city of Apollonia in North Africa with a Cambridge University expedition. Another exotic venue lay in the South China Sea where the great Chinese junk Tek Sing had 2000 people aboard when she struck a reef off Sumatra in 1822. Only 250 people were saved in the Tek Sing tragedy, and the death toll of 1750 unfortunates was higher than the losses from the more famous Titanic in the Atlantic in 1912. When they dived on the Tek Sing in 1998, Hugh's team raised 350,000 pieces of Chinese porcelain, the world's greatest porcelain salvage. Edwards says: 'A man may be considered lucky to be associated with one treasure in a lifetime. I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with four treasure ships with perhaps another one to go. Somewhere behind an Abrolhos reef off the WA coast are three tons of silver coin in iron-bound chests. Fingers crossed there!' ...Show more

Okinawans Reaching Australia by John Lamb

$49.99 AUD

Category: History

Australia Under Attack: Darwin by Douglas Lockwood

$24.99 AUD

Category: History

The morning of 19 February 1942 saw the grim face of war on Australian shores for the first time as a Japanese task force attacked Darwin. A correspondent for the Melbourne Herald at the time of the bombings, author Douglas Lockwood witnessed the event with his own eyes.

Red Dust in Her Veins : Women of the Pilbara - SIGNED by LISA HOLLAND-MCNAIR

$26.99 AUD

Category: History

The Last Anzacs by Tony Stephens and Stephen Siewert

$28.99 AUD

Category: History

More than 75,000 Australians and New Zealanders went to war on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. They shared a horror, but their courge and deeds on a balltlefield of tragic errors and unimaginable suffering helped a legend, the legend of the Anzacs. The Anzacs lost more men on the Western Front that the y did against the Turks at Gallipoli. Yet, rightly or wrongly, Gallipoli is etched deepest into the Australian and New Zealand psyches. Now, all the original Anzacs, the men of Gallipoli, are gone. This book records the lives of the last of them, their war memories and photographs. The legend will live on. ...Show more

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

$35.99 AUD

Category: History | Reading Level: near fine

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