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.

The eighteenth century was an era when brave mariners took their ships beyond the horizon in search of an unknown world. Those chosen to lead these expeditions were exceptional navigators, men who had shown brilliance as they ascended the ranks in the Royal Navy. They were also bloody good sailors.

From ship's boy to vice-admiral, discover how much more there was to Captain Bligh than his infamous bad temper. Meet a 24-year-old Master Bligh as he witnesses the demise of his Captain and mentor Cook; a 34-year-old Lieutenant Bligh at the helm of the famous Bounty then cast adrift by Fletcher Christian on an epic 47-day open-boat voyage from Tonga to Timor; and a 36-year-old Captain Bligh as he takes HMS Providence, in the company of a young Matthew Flinders, on a grand scientific voyage around the world. And all this before he was forty.

Rob Mundle's BLIGH puts you at the heart of a great nautical life - it's a story that embraces the romance of the sea, bravery in battle, the adventure of exploration under sail and the cost of having the courage of your convictions. H/Cover

Iain McCalman.

A gripping adventure story and a brilliantly enlightening work of history, for the first time portraying the Darwinian revolution as a collective enterprise forged in Australasia.  These four remarkable men did what one alone could not – combed the world for evidence of evolution by natural selection, and then fought tirelessly in the social and intellectual battle that followed its famous publication 150 years ago.

Together they changed the world.

Sarah Murgatroyd.

In 1860, an eccentric Irish police officer named Robert O’Hara Burke led a cavalcade of camels, wagons and men out of Melbourne. Accompanied by William Wills, a shy English scientist, he was prepared to risk everything to become the first European to cross the Australian continent.

A few months later, an ancient coolibah tree at Cooper Creek bore a strange carving: ‘Dig Under 3ft NW’. Burke, Wills and five other men were dead. The expedition had become an astonishing tragedy.

Sarah Murgatroyd reveals new historical and scientific evidence to tell the 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.

Frank Hann was one of the greatest bushman in Australia.  He travelled from Northern Queensland through the Territory to the Kimberley and finally to Laverton and the Eastern Goldfields where he spent his life exploring the desert.  These unique diaries record his travels and life and are essential reading for anyone travelling the Western Australian and Northern Territory deserts.

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.