Thread: Australian history/events book recommendation

Manning Clark's HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA abridged from the six-volume classic by Michael Cathcart.

May I suggest this site, there are links to everything you would need to know about our early history, most in the words of the people living it, Bob

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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

Catch-22,

When I was invited by The Rt Hon Chris Bowen MP to become an Australian citizen, I did the same thing - asked people which are the books to read so i can understand more about how Australia came to be.

By far the best book I was recommended was The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes.

It's a superbly involved read and the research that went into the book is vast - Mr Hughes has done all of the hard work for you and he writes very well indeed. It isn't a textbook; it's a narrative and it's wonderfully descriptive.

Only drawback - I'd say too many quotes for my personal taste...but the man certainly did years of research. It paints a detailed vision of life in the UK prior to transportation and life for the prisoners on the way and when they got here as well as life for the colonial founding civilians.

I highly recommend this book. In fact I think I might re-read it.

Booktopia - The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes, 9780099448549. Buy this book online.

I found this an excellent read over Christmas. It flowed well and covered more than you'd think. Actually starts off with the Dutch.

Booktopia - The Great Race, The Race Between the English and the French to Complete the Map of Australia by David Hill, 9781742751108. Buy this book online.
The Great Race

The Race Between the English and the French to Complete the Map of Australia

The thrilling race between Frenchman Nicolas Baudin and Englishman Matthew Flinders to chart the map of Australia.

On the afternoon of 8 April 1802, in the remote southern ocean, two explorers had a remarkable chance encounter. Englishman Matthew Flinders and Frenchman Nicolas Baudin had been sent by their governments on the same quest: to explore the uncharted coast of the great south land and find out whether the west and east coasts, four thousand kilometres apart, were part of the same island.

And so began the race to compile the definitive map of Australia. These men's journeys were the culmination of two hundred years of exploration of the region by the Dutch – most famously Abel Tasman – the Portuguese, the Spanish and by Englishmen such as the colourful pirate William Dampier and, of course, James Cook.

The three-year voyages of Baudin and Flinders would see them endure terrible hardships in the spirit of discovery. They suffered scurvy and heat exhaustion, and Flinders was shipwrecked and imprisoned – always knowing he was competing with the French to produce the first map of this mysterious continent.

Written from diaries and other first-hand accounts, this is the thrilling story of men whose drawings recorded countless previously unknown species and turned mythical creatures into real ones, and whose skill and determination enabled Terra Australis Incognita to become Australia.

All excellent suggestions, thanks. I've started with Clark's book and will work my way down the list.

Cheers