THE WARRNAMBOOL FIRE BRIGADE 1863 - 2013 by QUARRELL, AVIS

$15.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

Saving St Brigid's by Regina Lane; Shane Howard (Foreword by)

$35.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

At the top of a hill in south-west Victoria, surrounded by rolling green hills that fall away to the Southern Ocean, sits a grand old red-brick church. For more than 150 years, these fertile volcanic fields have sustained the largest rural population of Irish descent in Australia. Built and paid for by the children of potato-famine survivors, St Brigid's is a symbol of faith and hope in an ancient land, by a cold, wild sea. In 2009, the Catholic Church put the church and hall up for sale, against the wishes of the local community. What began as a small local issue soon became a national news story, in a battle that went all the way to Rome. Saving St Brigid's is the truly unique story of a small Australian rural community who, in the spirit of their Irish rebel ancestors, stood up for what they believed in. Their fight for justice awakened the author to the richness of her Irish Catholic culture, and its lasting legacy on the community, and the Church, she grew up in. Through the lens of her Irish heritage and that of the local Indigenous people, she weaves together a lyrical narrative of song and story, and discovers just how much our ancestral traditions have to teach us if we are to transform the world we live in. ...Show more

THE CHURCH ON THE HILL by DOYLE, HELEN

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

Australia's Funniest Yarns by Graham Seal

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

Australians traditionally like their humour irreverent, crude and with very sharp teeth. Remember the one about the strange whining sound heard at airports as planes from Britain landed? This was the whingeing of Pommy migrants dissatisfied with what they found in Australia. Or how about the Citizenshi p Test for Aspiring Australians which begins with this question about an essential life skill: 'How many slabs can you fit in the back of a Falcon ute while also allowing room for your cattle dog?' The bush is the source of traditional Aussie humour. Pioneering, settlement and battling fire, flood and drought have produced yarns of tough cocky farmers, shearers, bush workers, swaggies and dreadful cooks. Much of this humour relates to the resilience and fortitude necessary to endure the realities of rural life. Australians took this sensibility with them to war and to work in the cities, and the tradition continues today. Whatever the circumstances, Australians have always found something to laugh about, laugh at or laugh off. ...Show more

Strayan Dictionary: Avo, Arvo, ScoMo, Mabo and All the Essential Strayan Words by Dominic Knight

$29.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

Following up on the success of Strayapedia, Dom has put together a dictionary of all things 'Strayan. This is a funny, topical stocking stuffer for the Christmas market, and the perfect gift for anyone who loves The Chaser or The Betoota Advocate. See the attached sample definitions for a sense of the w hole book. Avo - avocado, because 'cado' is just so onerous to say. Increasingly Australians 'smash' their avocado as opposed to slicing it, also for laziness reasons. It was suggested by the social researcher Bernard Salt that young Australians couldn't afford to buy property because they blow their disposable income on 'smashed avocado' at fancy cafe. As one of the baby boomers who profited enormously from the massive increases in real estate value, pricing millennials out of the market, Salt was fortunate that the understandable backlash to his article didn't lead to him getting smashed himself. Bathers - swimmers Battler - 1. Someone of limited financial means. 2. Someone of comfortable financial means who views themselves as hard done by because most of their disposable income goes on their foolishly large mortgage. ?Howard's battlers - People who voted for John Howard because they shared his belief in ordinary enterprising Australians doing it for themselves without the interfering government getting in the way, and who were subsequently lavishly rewarded by his middle-class welfare programmes. BHP - Broken Hill Proprietary, a major mining company that was once known as "the big Australian". Its merger with the UK-based Billiton saw it follow the Australian tradition of hanging out in London, doing a little bar work, and ultimately coming back home when things didn't work out - consequently, the company is now known just as BHP. Its namesake hill in Western NSW is now considerably more broken, thanks to BHP mining it until it no longer exists. Nevertheless, as one of Australia's largest companies, it has a proud record of job creation both at home and in Papua New Guinea, where its Ok Tedi mine created many jobs fixing the 1300 square kilometres of countryside it polluted and helping the 50,000 people affected. Billy - a bush teapot, originally made from an empty tin of 'bully beef', and generally stoked in a campfire. Later usage commemorates the prime minister Billy McMahon, whom most Australians wanted to throw in a fire. Bogan - a derogatory term for lower-class Australians. Bogans may be identified by their flannelette markings and mullet plumage, and are found mostly in Maccas car parks, sitting on the bonnets of the highly polished V8s they collect as trophies. Bogans undertake an annual migration to Canberra for a ritual known as the 'Summernats', and are considered an endangered species thanks to their prodigious consumption of Winnie Blue cigarettes.   ...Show more

Tale Of Two Cities: History Of Modern Warrnambool by Gordon Forth

$20.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

All round Australia a phenomenon is emerging. While country centres stagnate or decline, some have transformed themselves into "regional cities" that grow and grow, dominating large catchments far beyond their local districts. The modern story of Wagga and Alice Springs, Mackay and Bunbury, is the story of dozens of cities-and of changes that have reoriented Australian society. Warrnambool makes a perfect illustration, with extra interest from its distinctive locale. Each aspect of communal life shows how these centres increasingly replicate capital cities, and concentrate activities once spread across their regions. Education, culture, health, retailing, economies and governments, homes and workplaces-all dramatically rearranged-form the new pattern of urban and country life illustrated in this handsome book. ...Show more

Mallee Country: Land, People, History by Richard Broome; Charles Fahey; Andrea Gaynor; Katie Holmes

$39.95 AUD

Category: Australiana | Series: Australian History Ser.

Mallee Country tells the powerful history of mallee lands and people across southern Australia from Deep Time to the present. Carefully shaped and managed by Aboriginal people for over 50,000 years, mallee country was dramatically transformed by settlers, first with sheep and rabbits, then by flattening and burning the mallee to make way for wheat. Government backed settlement schemes devastated lives and country, but some farmers learnt how to survive the droughts, dust storms, mice, locusts and salinity as well as the vagaries of international markets and became some of Australias most resilient agriculturalists. In mallee country, innovation and tenacity have been neighbours to hardship and failure. Mallee Country is a story of how land and people shape each other. It is the story of how a landscape once derided by settlers as a howling wilderness covered in dismal scrub became home to citizens who delighted in mallee fauna and flora and fought to conserve it for future generations. And it is the story of the dreams, sweat and sorrows of people who face an uncertain future of depopulation and climate change with creativity and hope. ...Show more

Cattlemen in Pearls - Celebrating Women in Agriculture by Ian and Anne Galloway (Concept by)

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

Cattlemen in Pearls introduces us to 28 remarkable Australian women, spanning three generations, whose love for the land and livestock is ingrained in their genetic profile. These powerful, surprising and moving mini-biographies recount tales of gritty determination, direst tragedy and glorious courage. We are given rare insight into how and what it's like to start a cattle business from scratch; to run a successful stud enterprise; to manage a vast cattle station; to head a pastoral industry group and corporation.The tough physical and emotional terrain of the bush, and strong family ties, play a role in each of these diverse, down-to-earth and sometimes heartbreaking stories. There are droughts, floods, emergencies, times of despair and loss, as well as hilarious antics, joyous gatherings and extraordinary stories of success. For each of these thoroughly capable, warm-hearted women there is simply no other lifestyle choice. Cattlemen in Pearls is a compelling tribute to women in agriculture, specifically Australia's beef industry. ...Show more

Shearing in Victoria's Western District by Tracey Kruger

$60.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

This book includes photographs and a brief history of 160 working woolsheds that were photographed by Tracey Kruger over a 2 and a half year time frame.

Saving St Brigid's by Regina Lane (Foreword by); Shane Howard (Foreword by)

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

At the top of a hill in south-west Victoria, surrounded by rolling green hills that fall away to the Southern Ocean, sits a grand old red-brick church. For more than 150 years, these fertile volcanic fields have sustained the largest rural population of Irish descent in Australia. Built and paid for by the children of potato-famine survivors, St Brigid's is a symbol of faith and hope in an ancient land, by a cold, wild sea. In 2009, the Catholic Church put the church and hall up for sale, against the wishes of the local community. What began as a small local issue soon became a national news story, in a battle that went all the way to Rome. Saving St Brigid's is the truly unique story of a small Australian rural community who, in the spirit of their Irish rebel ancestors, stood up for what they believed in. Their fight for justice awakened the author to the richness of her Irish Catholic culture, and its lasting legacy on the community, and the Church, she grew up in. Through the lens of her Irish heritage and that of the local Indigenous people, she weaves together a lyrical narrative of song and story, and discovers just how much our ancestral traditions have to teach us if we are to transform the world we live in. ...Show more

Up Came a Squatter : The Life and Times of Niel Black , 1839-1880 by Maggie Black

$49.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

Niel Black, a Scot from Argyllshire, arrived in Melbourne in September intending to make his fortune. Ambitious and determined, Black became one of the most successful and energetic squatters in the Western District of Victoria - a livestock breeder and a Member of the Legislative Council. He was also a correspondent extraordinaire, and his letters to family, fellow pastoralists, colonial officials, and his chief UK business partner, Thomas Steuart Gladstone (and first cousin of the British prime minister), offer a unique insight into the time. Black's letters and journals, now held at the State Library of Victoria, are the inspiration for this revelatory book written by his great-granddaughter. Battles with local Aboriginal people, other settlers, Commissioners of Crown Lands and bush-fires, along with droughts, family feuds, multiple trips back to Scotland to find a wife and Black's rise to gentrified excess are all vividly brought to life. 'In this vivid, fast-moving book Niel Black comes to life' - Geoffrey Blainey ...Show more

Salt: Selected Essays and Stories by Bruce Pascoe

$34.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

A collection of stories and essays by the award-winning author of Dark Emu, showcasing his shimmering genius across a lifetime of work. Bruce Pascoe has been described as a 'living national treasure' and his work as 'revelatory'. This volume of his best and most celebrated stories and essays, collected here for the first time, ranges across his long career, and explores his enduring fascination with Australia's landscape, culture, land management and history. Featuring new and previously unpublished fiction alongside his most revered and thought-provoking nonfiction - including extracts from his modern classic Dark Emu - this collection is perfect for Pascoe fans and new readers alike. It's time all Australians saw the range and depth of this most marvellous of local writers ...Show more