Edited by Tim Flannery. 

First published in two-volumes in 1814, this is the enthralling account of the circumnavigation of Australia, by the man who gave our country its name. 

268pp.

Christopher Richards.

In 1864 three ships carrying 120 people set out from Melbourne bound for a land of promise in remote north Western Australia. But Utopia became a living hell. Softcover. 210 pages.

Wilfred & Christopher Steele.

The surveys & explorations of LA Wells. Wells was a member of several important explorations, firstly with the Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition, then led the Calvert Scientific Expedition. He was also responsible for much of the pastoral survey work in South Australia and Victoria River area in the Northern Territory. Wells also led a prospecting expedition into the Musgrave, Mann, Everard, Petermann & Tomkinson Ranges during 1903.

Hard Cover 144 pp.

Geoffrey Blainey. A classic account of how Australia's geographical remoteness has been central to shaping our history and identity. 412pp.

Charles Darwin. 

When the Beagle sailed from Devonport on 27th Dec 1831, Darwin was 22 and setting off on the voyage of a lifetime. 432pp.

Two Classic Tales of Australian Exploration

In this remarkable volume Tim Flannery brings together two classic Australian tales of travel and exploration: 1788 by Watkin Tench and Life and Adventures by John Nicol. Watkin Tench was a young marine captain with the First Fleet. With his natural curiosity and genius for storytelling he documented his first indelible impressions of this extraordinary land. John Nicol, experienced maritime globetrotter and steward on the Lady Juliana, arrived in Port Jackson two years later.  On board was Sarah Shitlam, his young convict lover, who had borne their son John during the voyage. Nicol’s record of the savagery and tenderness of a life lived on the high seas in the late eighteenth century is unrivalled. 196 pp.

Where is Here?

Tim Flannery. 

In this book Flannery charts 350 years of exploration in Australia. A chronological collection of well-known and little-known explorers, from Jan Carstensz in 1623 to Robyn Davidson in 1977. A highly readable account. 

 In 1860 the Australian outback remained all but unknown to the European settlers. A prize of ?2,000 was offered by the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria for the first expedition successfully to cross the country from Melbourne to the north coast. The Burke & Wills Expedition, led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, a Totnes-born surveyor who had emigrated to Australia at the age of 18 and worked as a shepherd, a gold-digger and an assistant surgeon, set out in August 1860. The journey was arduous and slow, so much so that, once they reached Cooper's Creek, Burke, Wills and two others made a dash for the coast with only three months' food; they made it, but on the way back, after killing and eating their camels when their supplies ran out, they discovered that the men who stayed at Cooper's Creek had left only 9 hours earlier. Unable to reach civilisation, Wills died of exhaustion and malnourishment in June 1861; only one member of the expedition of made it back to Melbourne alive. John Van der Kiste's biography of Wills is the first full account of his life, including his upbringing in Devon as well as the expedition itself.