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Project Gutenberg Australia gratefully acknowledges the significant contribution of Sue Asscher in preparing many of the eBooks relating to Australian Explorers, which are available from this page.
Journals of Australian Land and Sea Explorers and Discoverers

In March1606 Willem Janszoon, on board the Duyfken, charted about 300 km of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. He is the first authenticated discoverer of Australia. From that time many seafarers made contact with the Australian coast including Torres, Hartog, Pelsaert, Dampier and Cook.
From the landing of the first fleet in 1788, the "new" inhabitants of Australia were desperate to know what lay beyond the mountains which rose about 50 kilometres inland from the coast and which formed a seeminly impenetrable barrier to exploration of the continent. There was a very practical reason for this need to know: their very survival seemed to depend on finding suitable land for grazing and cultivation. Beyond that, however, was the curiosity which has always driven men to discovery.
Gradually the map of the inland of the continent was drawn, first with the discovery, by Blaxland Lawson and Wentworth, of a way across the Blue Mountains, and then by men such as Sturt, Oxley, Eyre, Stuart, Giles, Leichhardt, and Burke and Wills. The outline of the continent was mapped by navigators including Cook, Flinders, King and Stokes.
At the time of their discoveries there was great interest in the exploits of these explorers and it was a was a common practice for them to prepare a journal of their expeditions for publication in England. Then, for more than a century afterwards, their exploits were taught in schools.
A reassessment has since taken place, where settlement is seen as invasion and exploration is seen as expropriation. Of course, these were men of their time and as such behaved in a way which would be unacceptable to us now. However, their courage, determination and curiosity shine through in their writing. Furthermore, in reading their journals we are able to take part in the journeys which they made. Sue Asscher, who prepared many of the ebooks listed below, summed it up very well when she commented "I do love and hate the explorers: they kill anything that moves, turn turtles over, poke through graves, look up grass skirts, take things for further examination never to be returned, scoff at anything superstitious, etc. taking notes all the time...and then call, with a sneer, some native girls who come to take a look at them, the explorers, 'the inquisitive sex'".
We have here at Project Gutenberg Australia, in ebook form, one of the most comprehensive collections in the world of the journals of Australian explorers. Furthermore, the 'HTML' versions contain the illustrations which were included in the original publications. Click on the explorer's name to see an image of the explorer, biographical information, and a sketch map of the routes travelled. Also see the Australian Explorers page for more information about Australian land and sea exploration.










Gregory BLAXLAND (1778-1853)

• The Journal of Gregory Blaxland, 1813 (1913)--Text-- ZIP--HTML--ZIPPED HTML Includes a number of photographs taken in 1913, at the time of the centenary of the crossing, edited by Frank Walker (1861-1948)
  (Incorporating "Journal of a Tour of Discovery Across the Blue Mountains, NSW, in the year 1813".)

David CARNEGIE (1871-1900)

• Spinifex and Sand

William CARRON (1821-1876) (A survivor of Kennedy's Expedition to Cape York in 1848)

• Narrative of an Expedition Undertaken Under the Direction of E. B. Kennedy (1849)--Text--ZIP

James COOK (1728-1779)

• Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World made in H.M. bark "Endeavour"
• A Voyage Towards the South pole and Around the World--Volume I--Volume II

William DAMPIER (1651-1715)

• A New Voyage Round the World--Text-- ZIP--HTML
• A Voyage to New Holland, etc in the year 1699
• A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland, etc in the year 1699

Edward John EYRE (1815-1901)

• Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia, etc., Volume 1 and 2
• (An account of the manners and customs of the Aborigines and the state of their relations with Europeans is also included in Volume 2, above.)

Matthew FLINDERS (1774-1814)

• A Voyage to Terra Australis, Volume 1 (Includes an account of Bass and Flinders discoveries on the east coast of Australia--See Part II.)
• A Voyage to Terra Australis, Volume 2

John and Alexander FORREST

• Explorations in Australia

Ernest GILES

• Australia Twice Traversed

Frank and Augustus GREGORY

• Journals of Australian Exploration

George GREY

• Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume 1
• Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia Volume 2

William HOVELL and Hamilton HUME

• Journey of Discovery to Port Phillip--Text--ZIP--HTML

Alexander and Frank JARDINE

• Narrative of the Overland Expedition of the Messrs Jardine, from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland
  (Edited by F. J. Byerley).

Phillip Parker KING

• Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia, Volume 1
• Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia, Volume 2

William LANDSBOROUGH

• Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria, in Search of Burke and Wills, 1862.

Ludwig LEICHHARDT

• Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia 1844-1845
  [A. H. Chisholm's research and discovery of Gilbert's diaries and letters throws a new light on Leichhardt's expedition. Refer to Chisholm's book, "Strange New World," (Syd, 1955).]

David LINDSAY

• Journal of the Elder Exploring Expedition, 1891-2

John MacGILLIVRAY

• Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1846-50, Volume 1
• Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1846-50, Volume 2

John McKINLAY

• McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia (Burke Relief Expedition)

Thomas MITCHELL

• Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
• Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 1
• Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Volume 2

John OXLEY

• Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales

John Lort STOKES

• Discoveries in Australia, with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.)Volume 1 Volume 2

John McDouall STUART

• Explorations in Australia

Charles STURT

• Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia
• Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia

Abel TASMAN

• The Journal of Abel Jansz Tasman, 1642, with Documents Relating to his Exploration of Australia in 1644

Frederick WALKER

• Journal of Expedition in search of Burke and Wills

Peter Warburton

• Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia (1873)
• Major Warburton's Explorations in 1866

William John WILLS

• Successful Exploration through the Interior of Australia

I have Kindle.
They can hold a hell of a lot of books( can't remember how many at the moment ).
The books can be bought through an Amazon acount from a few cents to a few dollers, and downloaded strait from the net. There is also a large free list.
Some kindle's also come with a FREE internet conection.
Hope this helps Dave.

I have a sony ereader (I bought mine online here Reader )..

I chose the sony over the other brands as it's not backlit (some of them are) like a computer screen which can cause headaches.. the look is more natural (like paper) and it's very easy to use. I also bought the cover which has a little light in it - it is if you ask me an indispensable accessory as it allows you to read the book in darker places.. ie in bed at night. It also has a touchscreen page turner which makes turning pages very much like a real book.. you do have the option of using a button for this if you wish though.. The sony holds about 2500 books.. plus other stuff like photo's etc It also comes pre loaded with several dictionaries etc

You can download the books at one of many online bookstores (personally I prefer books on board for prices and variety).. some books are free - but you'll find that mostly the free books are not so good because for a book to be free it had to be released over 100 years ago as the copyrights on them run for a hundred years.. the other free books that you might find are generally 'short stories' by amateur or budding authors. I wouldn't waste my time on them. Prices for the books range from a couple of dollars to about $25 .. as a rule they are cheaper to download than they are to purchase in the shops as a hardcover version.. but I've found they aren't as cheap to buy as I was initially led to believe but I reason that this is because authors are publishers still have to make money and if they aren't making money then they stop producing books and well long story short is that I love to read so I'll pay without whining lol..

To actually download onto the sony you purchase the book from whichever store you choose, you then are given a link to download your book.. once you start the download the books software pops up (where it downloads into) and then it's simply a matter of dragging your book in the software to your reader - there is a list and this is simple and easy to understand.

One thing I was not told when I bought my ereader (about 4 years ago) was that you always have to download your books from the same computer.. if you download books from another computer it recognises that the reader is linked to another computer and it then freezes all the previous books.. and just take my word for it that it's not easy to get these books opened on your reader after this... I believe it's the same procedure for all ereaders not just the sony.. The same applies when you get a new computer. Apparently there is something you need to do before attempting to download new books from a new computer (even on the same IP address).. of course this is something I found out AFTER the fact lol..

I am asked a lot if I miss reading 'real books'.. nope not at all. I thought I would really miss holding a book in my hand and turning the pages.. the smell, the feel etc.. and I guess this is something I was worried about before I bought mine.. I was kind of forced into getting one as I was spending a lot of time in China (no English books available and I had read the half a suitcase worth of books that I had taken with me).. But to be honest I much prefer reading on my reader than paper books now and I'm only sorry it took me so long to convert. The same applies for my parents who now have ereaders and just love them.. they are retired and travel a lot so the ereaders are perfect for them... just load them up with books before you set off and there are no worries about fitting books in or the weight. I've had mine for about 4 years and have never had a problem with it and use it every day.

Oh one last thing.. most of them charge with a USB port.. if you have an option make sure you get a normal charger also as I've found that the usb port chargers only seem to work on an actual computer not through anything else.. and although it may not happen a lot you don't always have access to a computer. The battery on mine lasts about 2 weeks (I read for approx an hour every night - at least) .. it was lasting for a lot longer but I guess at 4 years old it's starting to wear down a bit.

I can't think of any thing else to tell you but if you have any questions feel free to ask..

Hope it helps.. (and that there isn't too many typos and grammatical errors in this post because it's late and I'm tired lol)..

x 2 for Kindle (iPad). As mentioned you pay through Amazon.

With the iPad + Kindle you can chose white pages with black font or vice versa.



Regards
Andrew

I have been investigating this for some time. The biggest problem is that there are a large number of book formats - and few, if any, will work with all formats, and some are very restricted, in an attempt to tie the machine to only one source. So far, I have not been able to decide on a device!

As indicated above, costs vary from free to close to the cost of dead tree books for newly released best sellers. There is a vast number of out of copyright books available free. Some books are available only as e-books, but many more are not available, and some have geographic restrictions on availability.

As far as the readers go, in my view, apart from format capability, the major difference is the type of display. There are two major types; these are e-ink displays, that work by reflected light (but usually have a light available), and conventional displays. The e-ink displays, at least at present, are monochrome, where the conventional displays are usually colour. But the big difference is in power use and hence battery life - the e-ink displays measure battery life in days or weeks, the conventional displays in hours.

As e-book formats are all pretty efficient for text, all readers can easily hold a year's worth of reading for most people. What you need to look at is how you can get the material in there, look for a USB connection or a slot for an external card. Wireless may be handy in some cases.

If you want to look at e-book availablilty, then e-book software is readily available for your laptop or desktop (or it is for Linux, I assume it is for Windows and Mac), so you can try before you buy (the device).

John

Fantastic info from you all,, thank you.

Sue, a quick question, do you have as John has suggested, any problems with formats etc, and do these ebooks download pics etc, as in history type books showing maps or other images etc?

G'day Chops

Both myself and the "Management" have Kindle E-book's we have the un-back lit versions (just the standard Kindle),they hold about 3000 books in the memory, they have a reasonable battery length and are reasonably easy and quick to recharge,ours being not backlit,both are wireless, we have a small LED light if reading in bed, but I prefer to use the bed lamp for lighting just put Kindle into google and that will give info on them, both of ours were purchased from "Big W"

cheers

If you are interested, there is a good book which I have downloaded it is the history of British Leyland the owners of Landrover during the "dark years" it is called "British Leyland, history of a car crash"

Cheers

P.S. my Kindle is on charge at the moment best X'mas present I ever got.

using ebook management software such as calibre you can "usually" and easily change many ebooks between formats.

i have been resisting the urge to get an ipad or tablet but the day is fast approaching i am getting sick of reading the books i do have on my phones ..