THE WARRNAMBOOL FIRE BRIGADE 1863 - 2013 by QUARRELL, AVIS

$15.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

Back Roads: The Scenic Route by Heather Ewart

$39.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

From the ABC Back Roads team, Australia's inspiring rural communities in splendid, vivid colour During the five years it has been appearing on our screens, ABC TV's Back Roads has taken us across Australia, through scorched deserts, along sapphire coasts, up breathtaking mountains and over gentle, roll ing plains. It has shown us the rugged landscapes, the resilient communities and the extraordinary individuals who make a life in those areas outside the big cities. In this book, we capture in vivid colour some of our favourite people and places. Full of glorious photos that show us the spirit, purpose, difficulties and humour of outback life, this book is a tribute to the surprising characters, the rarely told stories and the sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange places that exist along the back roads of our extraordinary country. ...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

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

An Afternoon of Time - Tales of the Great Ocean Road and Country Victoria by Don Charlwood

$19.95 AUD

Category: Australiana

Two stories have been added to this new edition to make twelve beautifully told and entertaining tales of rural life in Western Victoria during the 1930s. Four of the stories centre on the Otway Forest and the Great Ocean Road of that time. The other eight stories tell of farming and community life in t he Western District pre-WWII. Many of the author's photographs taken in the 1930s and '40s are included in this edition. Also included are the author's Reflections -- written in his ninety-fifth year. Charlwood tells of the people who influenced and encouraged his writing, and of the experiences and observations that were part of his progression to a published and respected author. ...Show more

THE CHURCH ON THE HILL by DOYLE, HELEN

$39.99 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

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

THE LOST OF THE LOCH ARD by CARLYN RON SPROSTON

$24.95 AUD

Category: Australiana

Amazing Story of Mystery Dog Ben and His Eerie Sense of Knowing by AUSTIN, TIM

$10.00 AUD

Category: Australiana

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.

The 1863 Shipboard Diary of Edward Charlwood - From England to Australia by Edward Charlwood; Don Charlwood (Foreword by)

$14.99 AUD

Category: Australiana

This beautiful book is a facsimile reproduction of the elegantly handwritten diary of 27-year-old Edward, accompanying his bride to her new land. It is an entertaining and informative account of their voyage onboard the Suffolk ¿ a voyage similar to that taken by the many immigrants of the sailing ship era. Edward Charlwood was Don Charlwood great-uncle. Edward¿s wife¿s descendents in England gave the diary to Don in the 1980s. ...Show more