Pieces of Blue

Kerry McGinnis.

Another great autobiography, one that you won’t want to put down. Kerry MacGinnis at the age of six lost her mother. Her father, left with four young children to raise, gathers up his family and leaves the city to go droving. For the next fifteen years, the McGinnis clan travels the continent, droving, horse breaking and living off the land

First published in 1999, this edition 2008

Pole to Pole One Man, 20 Million Steps 

In January 2012, Australia's Pat Farmer accomplished one of the greatest feats in human history. He'd arrived at the South Pole after the longest and arguably most dangerous run ever made, a physical and mental triumph that put him in the company of the worlds greatest adventurers. 

Pat Farmer's 21,000-kilometre Pole to Pole Run, dedicated to raising funds for the Red Cross, began at the North Pole in April 2011 and took him through Canada, the United States, Central America and South America to his ultimate destination in the Antarctic, the South Pole. He ran an incredible average of 65 kilometres every day, some days running up to 100 kilometres or more. 

Pat Farmer's diary chronicles the highs and lows of an extreme athlete, and reveals how he kept going through some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Whether you run or not, his account is sure to inspire, amaze and motivate.

First published in 2012

Oil; uranium; geology; conservation; these are the catch-cries of our times and Reg Sprigg embodies them all. Rock Star tells the life of this intrepid, determined and oft-times irreverent pioneering Australian renowned as one of our nation’s greatest geologists.By the age of thirty Reg had discovered the oldest fossils in the world and some of its deepest under-sea canyons. He had worked at Australia’s first two uranium mines and searched for material to construct the world’s first atomic bomb. By the time he was 40 he had helped found SANTOS and discovered the great Cooper Basin oil and gas fields. By the time he was 50 he had driven the first vehicle across the Simpson Desert and crossed the continent from north, south, east and west. He had also launched Arkaroola Wildlife Sanctuary, one of Australia’s first eco-tourism resorts.Written in a lively narrative style, Rock Star will make you laugh and cry and introduce you to a fascinating world that you never knew existed and won’t easily forget.

First published in 2008, this edition 2011

Raimond Gaita.

Romulus Gaita fled his home in his native Yugoslavia at the age of thirteen, and came to Australia soon after the end of World War Two.  This is a story of passion, betrayal, madness, friendship, joy, dignity, character and fate. Set in the Maldon/Maryborough area of Victoria. 210pp.

First published in 1998, this edition 2007

Rough Diamonds and Real Gems

RM Winn.  

This inspiring collection features nine captivating stories about ordinary bush men and women who lead extraordinary lives. There’s the island cattleman who swims his herd past toothy sharks and beady-eyed crocs; the pineapple grower who builds a stone church for his community; the timber worker who becomes a champion woodchopper; and a dairywomen who at eighty-eight is still rescuing birthing cows from the brink of death. 246pp. First published in this edition

First published in 2007, this edition 2008

From prolific writer Hector Holthouse, this is the story of a well to do English girl arriving in Northern Australia in 1912 to marry into the rough and ready lifestyle of an Australian cattle station.

She came to Mount Mulgrave in the Mitchell River country, amid comments of 'she'll never stick it out'. But stick it out she did, through months in wet seasons while the station was cut off from the outside world, through severe illness and marauding Aborigines.

This is an enthralling story about a pioneer woman's life in Northern Queensland.

First published in 1973, this edition 1994

Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city – and proud of it. This sun-baked coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquillity and friendliness.

Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew. The murderer randomly killed eight strangers – variously shooting, strangling, stabbing, bludgeoning and hacking his victims and running them down with cars – an innocent Perth was changed forever.

In the middle-class suburbs which were the killer's main stalking grounds, the mysterious murders created widespread anxiety and instant local myth. 'The murders and their aftermath have both intrigued me and weighed heavily on me for three decades. To try to make sense of this time and place, and of my own childhood and adolescence, I had, finally, to write about it.' The result is The Shark Net, a vibrant and haunting memoir that reaches beyond the dark recesses of murder and chaos to encompass their ordinary suburban backdrop.

First published in 2000, this edition 2007

Shooting Balibo: Blood and Memory in East Timor - Tony Maniaty

In 1975, journalist Tony Maniaty flew to the Portuguese colony of East Timor looking for a war to film.  He found it at a dusty outpost called Balibo.

Maniaty and his ABC News crew were shelled and five other television newsmen who followed were murdered by Indonesian troops.  Maniaty reported the Balibo Five story, faced death threats and fled before the Indonesian forces invaded.  The only foreign journalist left in the country was executed in cold blood.  The generation-long nightmare of the East Timorese had begun.

In Shooting Balibo he teams up with the cast and crew of the feature film Balibo, retraces his days of danger, and dines with Jose Ramos-Horta as the independence fighter-turned-President recovers from an assassination attempt.

But Maniaty's real purpose is to visit Balibo for the first time since 1975.  When he steps into the burned-out house where his colleagues were slaughtered thirty-three years ago, past and present collide before his eyes. 311ppFirst published in this edition

First published in 2009

Jean Waddell.

‘Shut the Gate is a delightful story revealing in a simple, direct way how ordinary people live through extraordinary events ..." 195pp.

First published in 1989, this edition 2005

Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Life of Road Train Pioneer and Bush Inventor of the Northern Territory of Australia.

Kurt Gerhart Johannsen is a pioneer, inventor, improviser of the Northern Territory. He was born in 1915 at Deep Well Station, 50 miles south of Alice Springs.

"Miner, inventor, aviator and mechanic extraordinaire . . ." (Centralian Advocate, Alice Springs, 1974)

"His inventiveness in 1945 on self-tracking trailers changed the Pastoral industry by making it possible for large cattle trains to negotiate bush tracks." (From a National Trust of Australia Bi-Centennial publication on '200 Remarkable Territorians - Quiet Achievers or Public Figures' . . . honored by BP Australian Ltd.)

There is also a sketch of the Wood-gas producer on which he runs his camping vehicle, "Mulga Express" Mark IV.

First published in 1992, this edition 2010

A sequel to Kings in Grass Castles.

The second generation of Durack men were not only hardy pioneers, droving cattle through untamed territory, they were also educated and well travelled in the world of commerce and politics. Through diaries, letters and legal documents, Mary tells the story of her father Michael and Patsy Durack's vigorous family.

First published in 1983. This edition 1998

Sheryl McCorry's memoir Diamonds and Dust was a runaway bestseller in 2007. Now, in Stars over Shiralee, Sheryl brings her story up to date, picking up from the death of her husband Bob McCorry.

Having moved from the Kimberley to a property called the Shiralee, Sheryl is rocked by the death of her ex-husband. While continuing to run the Shiralee, Sheryl at first leans on her parents and her children for comfort. But soon, she meets a new man – one who pursues her with ardour and is seemingly a wonderful match for her. Sheryl agrees to marry him, but not before she is diagnosed with breast cancer.

Moving and inspirational, Stars over Shiralee is the million acre cattle queen's surprising memoir of what happened next.

First published in 2009, this edition 2010