Colonial Armidale by John Ferry

$30.00 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

It is through the stories of townspeople and their aspirations, achievements and foibles that this vivid history unfolds. Unconventional as well as rigorously researched, this is an engrossing and dramatic narrative of the making of one town's prosperity. Armidale here provides a clear reflection of the growth of rural society in Australia's Victorian era. Its inhabitants, their sense of place and special affection for their town, the moral dimension of the day and the proscriptions of class and gender are all brilliantly rendered. The routines and work-a-day world of smalltown lives share the stage with the rich and powerful, avoiding any romanticised or heroic presentation of the past. In this animated panorama of humanity and history, the thrill of discovery could not be greater were this some ancient and exotic civilisation under scrutiny. ...Show more

Tough Customer - Chasing a Better Deal for Battlers by Allan Fels

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

Allan Fels has never been one to shy away from a fight, especially when the big end of town is exploiting small businesses or consumers. During his twelve years as head of Australia's competition watchdog, he took on banks, airlines, supermarkets and big telcos to make sure Australians were getting a fa ir deal. Since leaving the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in 2003, he's continued to champion the underdog. From fighting for the rights of those with a mental health disability, to overseeing the payment of millions of dollars in wages to illegally underpaid 7-Eleven workers, Fels has used his wily political skills and media savvy to get the job done. Along the way, he's also helped radically transform Victoria's taxi industry and investigated grossly overpaid corporate executives. In this fascinating account of his post-ACCC life, Fels opens up about how his family has coped with daughter Isabella's schizophrenia, what it was like to be controversially sacked by 7-Eleven and what he's learned over his fifty years of dedicated public service. ...Show more

Tell Me Why: The Story of My Life and My Music (HB) by Archie Roach

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History | Reading Level: 3 Biography

A powerful memoir of a true Australian legend: stolen child, musical and lyrical genius, and leader. No one has lived as many lives as Archie Roach - stolen child, seeker, teenage alcoholic, lover, father, musical and lyrical genius, and leader - but it took him almost a lifetime to find out who he real ly was. Roach was only a few years old when he was forcibly removed from his family. Brought up by a series of foster parents until his early teens, his world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of. In this intimate, moving and often shocking memoir, Roach's story is an extraordinary odyssey through love and heartbreak, family and community, survival and renewal - and the healing power of music. Overcoming enormous odds to find his story and his people, Roach voices the joy, pain and hope he found on his path through song to become the legendary singer-songwriter and storyteller that he is today - beloved by fans worldwide. Tell Me Why is a stunning account of resilience and the strength of spirit - and of a great love story. ...Show more

Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History | Reading Level: 3 Biography

ARIA Award-winning singer and actress Clare Bowditch confronts her inner critic in this no-holds-barred memoir. This is the story I promised myself, aged twenty-one, that I would one day be brave enough - and well enough - to write. Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories. Through her music and performing, this beloved Australian artist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' only begins once you're thin or beautiful, that good things only happen to other people.YOUR OWN KIND OF GIRL reveals a childhood punctuated by grief, anxiety and compulsion, and tells how these forces shaped Clare's life for better and for worse. This is a heartbreaking, wise and at times playful memoir. Clare's own story told raw and as it happened. A reminder that even on the darkest of nights, victory is closer than it seems.With startling candour, Clare lays bare her truth in the hope that doing so will inspire anyone who's ever done battle with their inner critic. This is the work of a woman who has found her true power - and wants to pass it on. Happiness, we discover, is only possible when we take charge of the stories we tell ourselves. ...Show more

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James

$19.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History | Series: Picador Classic | Reading Level: very good

With an introduction by P. J. O'Rourke 'Do not read this book in public. You will risk severe internal injuries from trying to suppress your laughter.' Sunday Times I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment that did not affect me. I n the first instalment of Clive James's memoirs we follow the young Clive on his journey from boyhood to the cusp of manhood, when his days of wearing short trousers are finally behind him. Battling with school, girls, various relatives and an overwhelming desire to be a superhero, Clive's adventures growing up in the suburbs of post-war Sydney are hair-raising, uproarious and almost too good to be true ...Told with James's unassailable sense of humour and self-effacing charm, Unreliable Memoirs is a hilarious and touching introduction to the story of a national treasure. A million-copy bestseller, this classic memoir is a celebration of life in all its unpredictable glory.   ...Show more

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race: A Biography of a Sporting Icon (HB) by Rob Mundle

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History | Reading Level: 6 Sport

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is the story of one of the world's greatest sporting challenges. In its 75th year, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race has become an icon of Australia's summer sport, ranking in public interest with such national events as the Melbourne Cup, the Australian Open tennis an d the Boxing Day cricket test. No regular annual yachting event in the world attracts such huge media coverage as does the start on Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race: A biography of a sporting icon is the story of one of the world's greatest sporting challenges, an event where men and women from all walks of life are inspired and challenged by the beauty and power of nature. The 628-nautical mile course is often described as the most gruelling long ocean race in the world, a challenge to everyone who takes part. A team effort as much as a personal challenge where one mistake can lead to defeat, while success can deliver national and international acclaim. Bestselling author Rob Mundle has competed in the race on three occasions and reported on it for both newspapers and television for more than fifty years. The pinnacle of his many writing achievements is the international bestselling book Fatal Storm, the powerful story of the tragic 1998 Sydney Hobart race. ...Show more

Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture by Bruce Pascoe

$19.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

JOE SKYRNSKI, CO-FOUNDER CHAMP EQUITY: 'A must read for every Australian! Drawn from the diaries of European explorers, it comprehensively explodes the self-serving myth we perpetrated about Terra Nullius, that the first Australians were hunter-gatherer savages with no traits of civilisation. Pascoe cle arly documents extensive contemporary evidence to the contrary'  'Dark Emu injects a profound authenticity into the conversation about how we Australians understand our continent ... [It is] essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what Australia once was, or what it might yet be if we heed the lessons of long and sophisticated human occupation.' Judges for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing -- behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources. Bruce's comments on his book compared to Gammage's: " My book is about food production, housing construction and clothing, whereas Gammage was interested in the appearance of the country at contact. [Gammage] doesn't contest hunter gatherer labels either, whereas that is at the centre of my argument."   ...Show more

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta

$32.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History | Reading Level: 4 Non Fiction

This remarkable book is about everything from echidnas to evolution, cosmology to cooking, sex and science and spirits to Schrodinger's cat. Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from an Indigenous perspective. He asks how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation. How does this affect us? How can we do things differently? Sand Talk provides a template for living. It's about how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It's about how we learn and how we remember. It's about talking to everybody and listening carefully. It's about finding different ways to look at things. Most of all it's about Indigenous thinking, and how it can save the world. ...Show more

Caroline's Diary

$34.95 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

The Great Emu War by Gordon Cope; Simon Mellor (Illustrator)

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

In 1932 in the wheat country of Western Australia there was a plague of emus. The plague was so great that the Federal Government was convinced to send a squad of soldiers equipped with machine guns mounted on trucks. They were ordered to shoot the emus - a tactic that had been tried before and failed m iserably. Still, consistency often prevails while unrequited success weeps quietly in the corner. There is a lot going on - farmers who want to secede from the Commonwealth, a State election and referendum, soldiers more interested in what is under the soil, a commander with questionable mental health, Aboriginal farmhands once again bemused by the white fellas and the usual line up of conspirators, wannabees, politicians and ordinary folks. Oh, and many thousands of emus.There is nothing more interesting or more comical - tragic - or emotional than human beings and when they live in interesting times and collide with great wealth and power, there's a lot to explore. ...Show more

Bushranger Tracks Discover The Historic Sites Of Our Wild Colonial Past by Powell Greg

$24.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

No Marketing Blurb

China Dependence - Australia's New Vulnerability by Jonathan Pearlman

$22.99 AUD

Category: Australian Stories People History

The latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs explores Australia's status as the most China-dependent country in the developed world, and the potential risks this poses to its future prosperity and security. China Dependence examines how Australia should respond to the emerging economic and diplomatic challenges as its trade - for the first time - is heavily reliant on a country that is not a close ally or partner. ...Show more