Australian Women Pilots: Amazing True Stories of Women in the Air by Kathy Mexted

$34.99 AUD

Category: History

There's a lot of aeroplanes and aviators down in that water. Thank God I'm not one of them.From pioneering and outback flights to delivering Spitfires or tackling the jungles of New Guinea, Australian Women Pilots tells of ten Australians with extraordinary stories.Women have been flying since the early days of aviation but, with a few notable exceptions, they have rarely been visible or well known. Kathy Mexted shares the feats of trailblazers like Nancy Bird Walton, Deborah Wardley, who was told by Ansett that women couldn't be pilots, and Gaby Kennard, the first Australian woman to fly solo around the world. Others are perhaps less known, but as pilots involved with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary, the RAAF, aerial agriculture or long-range ferrying, their stories are just as extraordinary.Packed with drama, adventure and sometimes heartbreak, this riveting book is a salute to those women who refused to keep their feet on the ground.'Pass this book onto a young woman, who has a dream, and inspire her to take action in whatever direction she chooses…who knows where she can end up.' — Matt Hall, Red Bull Air Race World Champion 'Like most of these pilots, I was often away from home, working mostly with men, and figuring out how I fitted into it all. In my 30-year music career, I've had many girls approach me to tell me that they picked up a bass after seeing me play. I hope that by reading this book, young women will see what they can be.' — Janet English, Bass Guitarist of Spiderbait ...Show more

God Before Gugeri Luggers, Trucks & Water Bores & Other Kimberley Stories by GUGERI MICHAEL

$58.99 AUD

Category: History

The Gugeri family have been landmarks in the Kimberley for nearly a century. This book follows four generations of life in the north, from pearling, carrying, Anna Plains station, water boring, Cockatoo Island, oil drilling, wool carting, the Underworld, rockets, fishing, and many incidents and characte rs. Biographies of Doug Blythe, Billie King and details of many other Kimberley personalities are also offered. --Publisher's website. ...Show more

Moonlite: The Tragic Love Story of Captain Moonlite and the Bloody End of the Bushrangers by Garry Linnell

$34.99 AUD

Category: History

Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland, Scott's family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand. There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against the Maori in the brutal N ew Zealand wars. After recovering from a series of serious gunshot wounds, he sails to Australia and becomes a Lay Preacher, captivating churchgoers with his fiery and inspiring sermons. But Scott is also prone to bursts of madness. The local villagers back in Ireland often whispered that a 'wild drop' ran in the blood of the Scott family. One night he dons a mask in a small country town, arms himself with a gun and, dubbing himself Captain Moonlite, brazenly robs a bank before staging one of the country's most audacious jailbreaks. After falling in love with fellow prisoner James Nesbitt, a boyish petty criminal desperately searching for a father figure, Scott finds himself unable to shrug off his criminal past. Pursued and harassed by the police, he stages a dramatic siege and prepares for a final showdown with the law - and a macabre executioner without a nose. Meticulously researched and drawing on previously unpublished material, Moonlite is a brilliant work of non-fiction that reads like a novel. Told at a cracking pace, and based on many of the extensive letters Scott wrote from his death cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and sexually-repressed era of Australia in the second half of the 19th century. With a cast of remarkable characters, it weaves together the extraordinary lives of our bushrangers and the desperation of a young nation eager to remove the stains of its convict past. But most of all, Moonlite is a tragic love story. For these are the dying days of the bushrangers and Captain Moonlite is about to make his last stand. ...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 Austral ia 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

Great Expectations: Emigrant Governesses in Colonial Australia by Patricia Clarke

$29.99 AUD

Category: History

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

History Mysteries: The Lost Explorer by Mark;Greenwood Greenwood

$12.99 AUD

Category: Non Fiction | Series: History Mysteries Ser. | Reading Level: Children's - Grade 2-3, Age 7-8

In 1848 the famous explorer Ludwig Leichhardt sets out on an epic journey. His aim is to cross Australia from east to west, but he never reaches his destination and no one from his expedition is ever seen again. Countless search parties set out to look for the expedition but no trace is ever found. Unti l a young boy is given an artifact with an incredible story. ...Show more

The Last Wild West - The Saga of Northern Territory Cattle Stations, by Neil H. Atkinson

$29.99 AUD

Category: History

Publishers by New Holland Publishers

Kosciuszko by Nick Brodie

$29.99 AUD

Category: History

Australia's highest mountain, Mount Kosciuszko, is a dangerous place. Evan Hayes was an ordinary Australian battler. Hardworking, likable. Laurie Seaman was a world-wise American. Adventurous, affluent. When this athletic pair of cross-country skiers disappeared into the wilds of Kosciuszko they left a mystery, and became a sensation. Following their trail, Kosciuszko reveals the story of a young Australia between wars told by one of Australia's leading historical voices.  When Evan and Laurie went missing in August 1928, Australia's Snowy Mountains were remote. Traversing the globe from New York's Long Island to Siberia to Sydney and beyond Charlotte Pass, with shipboard romance and industrial strife along the way, this is the story of two very different people growing to manhood in a world of change. Accompanied by a diverse cast including motor car enthusiasts and aviators, bushmen and horsemen, trackers and journalists, this is the true story of a meeting of peoples and nations. This is history in a land of legend. From the world-famous to the nearly-forgotten, Kosciuszko is more than a mountain, it is a collective heritage, part of Australia's sense of self. Evan and Laurie are guides to this vantage point, to a time and place that deserves to be better known. At Kosciuszko, Australians came together in peacetime. And they did so simply because two mates vanished.   ...Show more

Many Maps - Charting Two Cultures: First Nations Australians and European Settlers in Western Australia by Bill Bunbury; Jenny Bunbury

$29.99 AUD

Category: History

The title Many Maps, Charting Two Cultures, looks at the way two contrasting societies often misunderstood each other in the western third of Australia. Maps can be drawn and interpreted in different ways. It is possible to map a path through life, find a way through a forest, traverse a desert or chart a sense of self and guide one's relationship to the natural world. Australia's First Nations mapped their world in terms of a spiritual and environmental relationship to country and an animate sense of being. The maps in European heads often explored ways to obtain wealth from the Australian earth.  Many Maps traces both misunderstandings, and sometimes sensitive understandings of land and culture in a continent that we both inhabit. ...Show more

Planting Dreams : Shaping Australian Gardens by Richard Aitken

$49.99 AUD

Category: Plants and Animals

'A garden should ...be just a little too big to keep the whole cultivated. Then it gives it a chance to go a little wild in spots' - Edna Walling, landscape designer Waratah or wattle? Chrysanthemum or rose? Planting Dreams celebrates the artistry and imagination that have shaped Australian gardens. Res pected garden historian Richard Aitken explores the environmental and social influences that have helped produce our unique gardening culture - from Indigenous land management and the earliest European garden at Farm Cove, to the potted plants and besser block screens of mid-twentieth century modernist design and beyond. Drawing on the unparalleled collections of the State Library of New South Wales, Planting Dreams showcases Australian garden making in all its richness and diversity through a stunning and intriguing mix of paintings, sketches, photographs, and prints, from popular culture to high art. 'An elegant look at the miraculous gardening evolution' - Indira Naidoo, author of The Edible Balcony ...Show more

Nor'Westers of the Pilbara breed by Jenny Hardie

$69.99 AUD

Category: History