Ernest Giles' own narrative of his explorations

The story of Trotman and the Canning Stock Route

Kim Lockwood. Excellent new book about John McKinlay and his search for Burke & Wills. Well documented and easy to read

Catalogue of an exhibition examining the explorers' place in Australian culture and including an array of material collected and produced by the expedition and its search parties (diaries, letters and paintings, birds and plants, hair and bones, clothing, weapons, food and narcotics). Explores the transformation of the expedition through the work of Australian artists.

"The Dig Tree unearths the awful secret at the heart of Australia's most famous expedition. A "must read" for anyone interested in our history.

Written by Sarah Murgatroyd whose "research is thorough, yet she never lets it hinder the narrative. She has been all over the ground; she understands the cruelty and beauty of the desert. And she has the best gift of all: she knows how to craft a story in prose as clear as a country creek."

Murgatroyd reveals new historical and scientific evidence to tell the full story of the disaster with all its heroism and romance, its discoveries, coincidences and lost opportunities. Generously illustrated with photographs, paintings and maps, The Dig Tree is a spell-binding book.

This chronicles the story of the very first surveyed border in Australia. Between 1847 - 1850 saw an epic three year saga of dogged persistence through heavy rain and flooded swamps to harrowing escapes from the waterless mallee country. Then came the almost immediate destruction of huge sections of border makers by a devastating firestorm.

The official nominated border was to have been on the 141st line of longitude, but it soon became clear that the border in practice was some kilometres west of this line. "The Disputed Country" being that thin slice of land between the intended border and the actual placement sparked a battle beginning in the courts and almost ended in civil war.

More than a century and a half after our first surveyed border was meant to eliminate a lawless haven for criminals between two colonies, a "no-man's land" still exists between two states. This book also includes a guide to significant heritage sites along the border as well as detailed strip maps, prepared by Westprint.

Review by Kim Epton

The story behind the journals of Shackleton's survival as the Endurance was crushed in the Antarctic ice in 1915.

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The definitive study of Giles' five explorations over a four year period.

Facsimile copy of JM Stuart's explorations from 1858 to 1862 with maps H/c

Tim Flannery documents almost 60 early explorers

The explorers of Australia tell an epic story of courage and suffering, of dispossession and conquest. This bestselling anthology, brilliantly edited and introduced by Tim Flannery, documents almost four centuries of exploration and takes us beyond the frontier into a world of danger, compassion, humour, brutality and death. The Explorers includes the work of Wills, Giles, Leichhardt, Sturt, Eyre and Mitchell, and a host of other fascinating figures. Here, in one place, is the most remarkable body of non-fiction writing ever produced in Australia.