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Straighshooter

For the first time, this volume brings together T A G Hungerford’s three collections of highly-acclaimed, bestselling autobiographical short stories. From his childhood in semi-rural suburbia, to his wartime experiences in Bougainville and occupied Japan; from Press Officer to the venerable Billy Hughes, to his days on the international news circuit, these stories make fascinating reading. With his extraordinary memory, vivid description and masterly use of colloquialisms and jokes, his writing reveals as much about the Australian character as it does about himself. 606pp

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To The Savage Land

Michael M. J. Costello. 

The life of John Costello, a pastoralist from Yass who opened up the wild countryon the Limmen River of the NT. 150 pp.

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Tom & Jack           Geraldine Byrne.

Tom and Jack tells the story of the Kilfoyles, cousins of the Duracks, who played a major part in the original overland cattle drive from Queensland to the mouth of the Ord River on the border between the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and were instrumental in establishing the cattle industry in that part of the country. What emerges is a wonderfully intimate account of the day to day problems and hardships faced by these early pioneers as they struggled to make a living in the most sparsely settled region of the continent.

Tom Kilfoyle, for example is portrayed as a colourful character who did things his own way and had, for the time, very enlightened ideas on land management and a more sympathetic attitude to the local Aborigines than many of his contemporaries.

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Tom Wills - His spectacular rise and fall.     

Greg de Moore.

This is a story of a flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader and agitator, and the man most often credited with creating the game of Australian Rules Football.

His father was murdered in the biggest massacre of Europeans by Aboriginal people, yet fives years later he coached the first Aboriginal cricket team. Wills lived hard and fast, but when his physical talents began to fade, the demons that alcohol and adrenaline had kept at bay surfaced, driving him to commit the most brutal of suicides at 44 and destitute.

Soft cover, 334 pages. 

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Tom Wills - First wild man of Australian sport.   Greg de Moore

Sent to the strict British Rugby School in 1850 at fourteen, Tom returned as a worldly young man whose cricket prowess quickly captured the hearts of Melburnians. But away from the adoring crowds, in the desolation of the Queensland outback, he experienced first-hand the devastating effects of racial tension when his father was murdered in the biggest massacre of Europeans by Aboriginal people. Yet five years later, Tom coached the first Aboriginal cricket team.Tom Wills lived hard and fast, challenging authority on and off the field. 

Greg de Moore has carefully pieced together Tom's life, giving us an extraordinary portrait of the life and times of one of our first sporting heroes, a man who lived by his own rules and whose contribution to Australian history has endured for more than 150 years.

Soft cover, 378 pages. 

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A Truckie's Dream:

The Allan Scott story: His official biography.

Fifty years ago Allan Scott was a young man with a single truck and a dream to build a trucking empire. Today he is one of Australia's richest men, owning the Scott Group of Companies, and a major shareholder in K&S corporation. Allan Scott believes in saying it the way he sees it, which can put him at odds with prime ministers, premiers, and the occasional football coach. A major sponsor of AFL club Port Power, he famously called for the sacking of Mark Williams.

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True Grit and Dry Wit:     More Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Australians.

In this impressive new collection, Ryle Winn introduces eight real-life heroes, each with an extraordinary tale to tell.  We meet a fencing contractor who proves you can't judge a book by its cover; two octogenarian sisters with a tragic family secret; a racing enthusiast and horse-breeder who gets the shock of his life; a gutsy timberman who has sidestepped his date with the devil on more than one occasion.

Ryle's unforgettable stories are moving and uplifting, and proof that the best yarns really are from the heart.

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The True History of the Kelly Gang.                  Peter Carey.

Carey has reportedly said he waited a lifetime to write this novel. It has probably taken him a lifetime of writing to be able to accomplish it.’ Matt Condon, SMH

‘I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.’

In TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semi-literate but magically descriptive prose as he flees from the police. To his pursuers, Kelly is nothing but a monstrous criminal, a thief and a murderer. To his own people, the lowly class of ordinary Australians, the bushranger is a hero, defying the authority of the English to direct their lives. Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged. Here is a classic outlaw tale, made alive by the skill of a great novelist.
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Under the Mulga: A Bush Memoir           Jim Gasteen.

An authentic and entertaining first-hand account of life in the Australian bush from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Under the Mulga follows Jim Gasteen's childhood adventures, marriage and his life-long love affair with the land, which saw him eventually become an unlikely champion of land management.

With a knack for storytelling, Jim Gasteen recounts classic tales of outback life - the bullockies, governesses and swaggies; the shearing, horse-breaking and fencing. His reminiscences tell of colourful characters, an unforgiving landscape, and a sense of community and camaraderie that makes Australian bush life unique.

Full of wisdom, warmth and humour, Under the Mulga vividly brings to life this all-but-forgotten era in our pastoral history.

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Wadjelas The memoirs of a 1950's Patrol Officer               Adrian Day
 
This story is about a very young man with noble intent, a lack of maturity and no training whatsoever who is sent out by government to deal with what it sees as a disintegrating and dying race. It is about the ineptitude of government in dealing with a giant problem the average citizens, if they concern themselves at all, think is being attended to by experts. That within some grand plan there are dove­tailed notions which will bring about a solution, if not now, then at some stage in the future. To confound government the race does not die nor does it quite disintegrate. Politics, prejudice, greed, apathy and indifference play their part. However there is enough conscience, courage and integrity, here and there, to provide in the awakening years just after World War II, the seed for dramatic change. There is tom-foolery, humour, pathos and plain tragedy. It ought to keep the reader entertained if not enthralled and it is as close to real local history as you can get. No masters need be served!
 
Adrian Day was a Native Welfare Officer in the ‘50s and ‘60s. His story is of the people, black, white and brindle, good, bad, and indifferent.
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Walk a Mile in My Shoes                Tom Collins. 

This is the inspiring boots-and-all story of a Queensland bush pioneer who flourished against all the odds.

Tom Collins was born in 1912 and by the age of five had his first job as a horse-tailer for his fathers itinerant draught-horse team. As a teenager he was paralysed for years after a horse-riding accident, but recovered to become an axeman, a banana-grower, a Harley Davidson rider, a dunny-can carter, a grader-driver, a dairy-worker, a barber and the proud owner of a caravan beauty salon in Central Queensland.

From brigalow ring-barker and side-show boxer in the Great Depression to ladies hairdresser, maker of fairy floss & toffee apples, auctioneer, country real estate developer and racehorse breeder, Tom Collins was by instinct an entrepreneurial go-getter and a restless nomadic dreamer. He fought his way out of the grinding poverty of his childhood and became the very symbol of a Queensland self-made man.

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The Washerwoman's Dream

The extraordinary story of Winifred Steger. In the early 1890s she migrated to Queensland with her father. Life was hard and at the age of 26 she fled and abusive husband and abandoned her four small children. She later met Ali, an Indian Muslim and together they ran a camel line in Central Australia. 520pp

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William Buckley

Tim Flannery.  

Buckley, an escaped convict, lived for 32 years with the Aborigines around Port Phillip Bay. Edited version of John Morgan’s 1852 book. 200pp. 

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You'll Never Take Me Alive

Nick Bleszynski.

A powerful tale of betrayal and vengeance. This is the story of Ben Hall, know as the gentleman bushranger and a chivalrous champion of the people. 336 pp.

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