The A-Z of Australian Facts, Myths & Legends

A handy collection of facts, figures and stand-out features about Australia. This book presents concise, reader-friendly information about a wide range of topics that will give you an excellent overview about all aspects of Australian life, culture, environment, economics and more.

Loran McDougall has compiled a fascinating guide to what makes up Australia in the 21st century, without forgetting the beginnings of this sun-burnt land.

Featuring statistics on each state and territory, you are sure to learn something new with every page as you delve into the many categories covered – history, geography, nature, science, religion, media, politics, health, education, law, immigration, tourism, transport, sport as well as holidays and events.

Thomas Keneally    

In this widely acclaimed volume, bestselling author Thomas Keneally brings to life the vast range of characters who have formed our national story.
Convicts and Aborigines, settlers and soldiers, patriots and reformers, bushrangers and gold seekers, it is from their lives and their stories that he has woven a vibrant history to do full justice to the rich and colourful nature of our unique national character.
The story begins by looking at European occupation through Aboriginal eyes as we move between the city slums and rural hovels of eighteenth century Britain and the shores of Port Jackson. We spend time on the low-roofed convict decks of transports, and we see the bewilderment of the Eora people as they see the first ships of turaga, or 'ghost people'. We follow the daily round of Bennelong and his wife Barangaroo, and the tribulations of warrior Windradyne. Convicts like Solomon Wiseman and John Wilson find their feet and even fortune, while Henry Parkes' arrival as a penniless immigrant gives few clues to the national statesman he was to become. We follow the treks of the Chinese diggers - the Celestials - to the goldfields, and revolutionaries like Italian Raffaello Carboni and black American John Joseph bring us the drama of the Eureka uprising.
Were the first European mothers whores or matriarchs? How did this often cruel and brutal penal experiment lead to a coherent civil society? Tom Keneally brings to life the high and the low, the convict and the free of early Australian society.
This is truly a new history of Australia, by an author of outstanding literary skill and experience, and whose own humanity permeates every page.

Kim Torney.

A powerful exploration of the making of a uniquely Australian image - the image of a child lost in the bush.

Stories of children lost in the bush, along with drought, fires and floods, became central to many Australian colonial experiences. This cultural legacy remains to this day, and is one of the few experiences modern Australians share with their colonial past.

Evolution is the grand theme of Country, which is a triple pronged book. It's autobiographical travel, an account of the evolution of kangaroos, and offers new information in defence of Flannery's theory that it was people rather than climate change that caused the extinction of mega-fauna.  258 pages

Dick Smith    

In 2011 the world's population exceeded 7 billion. Each year we add nearly 80 million people and by mid-century we will require twice as much food and double the energy we use today. Australia will be deeply affected by these trends - we have the fastest growing population of any developed nation.
These are the staggering facts that confronted Dick Smith. They set him on his crusade to alert us to the dangers of unsustainable growth. They are the facts that have convinced him that if we are to ensure the survival of our civilisation and the health of the planet then we must put a stop to population growth, now.
As our cities continue their unrestrained growth, as we battle daily on crowded public transport and clogged freeways, and as we confront the reality of water and power shortages, Dick challenges the long-held myth that growth is good for us. But more importantly he offers ways for us to re-invent our economy, to reassess the way we live and to at least slow down that ticking clock. This is a provocative, powerful and urgent call to arms.

Disasters that shocked Australia 

Ian Ferguson.

From the best-selling author of Murders that Shocked Australia, comes a new title in this exciting series. Spanning the decades from the first world war to the devastating bushfires of Black Saturday, Disasters that Shocked Australia will remind you of the turbulent and terrifying times that Australia has survived.

Covering disasters from the natural – earthquakes, bushfires and storms, to social and economic and even sport, Ian Ferguson has compiled one of the most thorough books on Australia’s disasters to this day.

With a story and disaster to engage every age, this is a great book to learn from, share and to have on your shelf for years to come.

‘It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life – a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else’. 

This book is not written specifically for an Australian audience but should appeal to the wacky Australian sense of humour.

It’s All About Australia Mate

Denis Gregory takes us on an unforgettable and hilarious journey through the history of Australia and what it means to be an Australia. Full of quirky observations and little-known facts, this book is a vivid commentary on the life and culture of ‘ the lucky country’. 176 pp.

Outbackers: Travelling the Outback with the Uteman

Strewth! Are we there yet? People of all ages travel or dream of travelling around our outback areas by car/caravan/campervan and are keen to read about people who have actually followed that dream. The Uteman, Allan Nixon - bestselling author of the Beaut Ute titles - travels the Outback in a new travel book a difference, featuring stories about the colourful people he meets in his travels as The Uteman. Journeying along legendary roads like ′The Long Paddock′ (from Echuca to Wilcannia), to The Flinders Ranges, Broken Hill and many off-the-beaten-track places, Allan discusses the history of areas and shares with his readers the wisdom of some genuine Aussie characters. Tricks of the outback travel trade will be included: why should every vehicle carry at least one can of warm beer? How can you pump up a tyre without a pump?

Adam Shand    

What's it like to be an outlaw biker? 'We're dickhead magnets,' one of them tells Adam Shand. 'Drunks in bars like to test themselves against a so-called outlaw.'
Once seen as a free-wheeling, brawling, pleasure-seeking bunch of misfits rolling down the highways, bikers are now cast as social bogeymen. If you believe the dire warnings of the media and politicians, they are an organised crime threat on a global scale.
Adelaide has long been regarded as the biker capital of Australia. Ten years ago South Australian Premier Mike Rann declared himself the nemesis of the biker community and he was committed to putting the clubs out of business with draconian new laws.
Bikers have rarely explained themselves; they have worn their outcast status as a badge of honour. But in 2005, author Adam Shand went inside the world of the outlaws to understand whether such drastic measures were justified or whether this was a fear campaign designed simply to win elections.
For the next six years, Shand mixed with bikers, talking to them about their lives and listening to their stories. He travelled with them on the road, spent time in their clubhouses, attended funerals and other club functions. He wanted to understand why men joined these secretive, arcane organisations which seemed to be at odds with the rest of society. What he found were not crime gangs but brotherhoods battling for their survival against threats from within and without.
By 2011 the bikers had won historic victories in the High Court. As Mike Rann's premiership imploded, the bikers were still riding high and living free. The hysteria was beginning to ebb. Outlaws explains how all this came to pass.

Searching For The Secret River

Kate Grenville

Searching for the Secret River is a memoir about the writing of Kate Grenville's international bestseller, The Secret River.

It tells the story of the research behind the novel - from the transcript of Grenville's ancestor's trial at the Old Bailey in 1805, to the information that contemporary historians are uncovering about what happened on the Australian frontier. It also takes the reader through the process of turning that research into living fiction - the false starts, dead ends and failures as well as the strokes of luck, flashes of inspiration and surprises.

1788    

David Hill.

An extraordinary narrative history of the First Fleet, by the bestselling author of The Forgotten Children. Never before or since has there been an experiment quite as bold as this. Set against the backdrop of Georgian England with its peculiar mix of elegance, prosperity, progress and squalor, the story of the First Fleet is one of courage, of short-sightedness, of tragedy but above all of extraordinary resilience. It is also, of course, the story of the very first European Australians, reluctant pioneers who travelled into the unknown - the vast majority against their will - in order to form a colony by order of the King's government. Separated from loved ones and travelling in cramped conditions for the months-long journey to Botany Bay, they suffered the most unbearable hardship on arrival on Australian land where a near-famine dictated that rations be cut to the bone. But why was the settlement of New South Wales proposed in the first place? Who were the main players in a story that changed the world and ultimately forged the Australian nation? How did the initial skirmishes with the indigenous population break out and how did the relationship turn sour so quickly?

Using diaries, letters and official records, DAVID HILL artfully reconstructs the experiences of these famous and infamous men and women of history, combining narrative skill with an eye for detail and an exceptional empathy with the people of the past.