Thread: Australian History Books - who's read what ?

Also by Tom Cole 'The Last Paradise'
'Spears and smoke signals'
By Gordon Broughton 'Men of the murray' (a very descriptive story of surveying an area of the murray. early 1920's)
'Turn again home' (about working on a Durack cattle run in the kimberly, then a sawmill in the phillipines
'The sliprails are down. ('Can't remember the details, it was borrowed and a while ago, but I enjoyed it)
By Kurt Johansen 'Son of the red centre'(this is an autobiography about the bloke who came up with the idea of the 'road train' with self steering trailers behind an ex army Diamond T, amongst other things.Also a wood gas fired dodge station wagon he drove everywhere, including across the Simpson.Its a great read of a hard adventurous life.)
By Kristen wiedenbach 'Rock star' (about australia's most accomplished geologist, Reg Sprigg.)
'Mailman of the birdsville track' (about Tom Kruse, The mailman.)
The royal flying doctor society occasionally puts out a dvd set of the 1950's film about the same man and also various other docco's including one about the restoration of his old Leyland badger truck .
Thats all for now . btw this thread is a great idea. Don

Hi,

As said previously by abbadonxi....... 1788 by Watkin Tench. It will change your mental image of first settlement. A must for any thinking person's library.

A more obscure one for Vic people is Aldo Massola's 'Journey Into Aboriginal Victoria'. Some public libraries still have it on the shelves. S***l it. Will give you mental indigestion and take you to places you would not otherwise go.

cheers, DL

A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Watkin Tench - Full Text Free Book (Part 1/4)

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Great Boomerang Scheme or something like that from (distant) memory.

Read it while I was in primary school I think
John

The book is called "the Great Boomerang" by Ion Idriess..Bearman

Heres a list of the books written by Ion Idriess

1927......Madmans Island
1931......Prospecting for gold
1931......Lasseters last ride
1932......Flynn of the inland
1932......The desert column
1932......Men of the jungle
1933......Drums of mer
1933......Gold dust and ashes
1934......The yellow joss
1935......Man tracks
1936......The cattle king
1937......Over the range
1938......How must australia fight
1938......Forty fathoms deep
1939......Cyaniding for gold
1940......Lightning ridge
1941......Nemarluk...King of the wilds
1942......Guerilla series (done for the Army0
1.... Shoot to kill
2.... Sniping
3.... Guerilla tactics
4.... Trapping the Jap
5.... Lurking death
6.... Scouting
1943......The great boomerang
1944......The silent service
1945......Horrie the wog dog
1946......In crocodile land
1947......Isles of despair
1948......Stone of destiny/ the diamond
1948......The opium smugglers
1949......One wet season
1950......The wild white man of Badu
1951......Across the nullabor
1952......Outlaws of the Leopolds
1953......The red chief
1954......The nor'westers
1955......The vanished people
1956......The silver city
1957......Coral sea calling
1958......Back o' Cairns
1959......The tin scratchers
1960......The wild north
1961......Tracks of destiny
1962......My mate Dick
1963......Our living stone age
1964......Our stone age mystery
1968......Challenge of the north
1969......Opals and sapphires

Ion Llewellyn Idriess 1889-1979 An autobiography was written by Beverley Elley in 1995. This fascinating australian character wrote of his life experiences (factual not fictional) covering everything from tin scrathing,mining wolfram,gold copper,gems,uranium, as a member of the 5th light horse in Gallipoli,Sinii and Palestine,trekking through Australias north before the motor car days,pearl diving, crocodile hunting etc. etc. Truly great Australian history. And written in a very down to earth way. I would recommend them to anyone as great reading.............Bearman

Thanks for posting the link! I've read bits and pieces of Tench's journals, makes for good reading.

Originally Posted by slug_burner

A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson by Watkin Tench - Full Text Free Book (Part 1/4)

Well he certainly didn't waste any time writing! Thanks, will be hunting down some of these!

Originally Posted by Bearman

Heres a list of the books written by Ion Idriess
.............Bearman

Way back when I was driving tourist coaches around the country the most commonly referred to books and easiest I found for gleaning information from was any of Glenville Pikes work.
He published quite a few:
"The Men who blazed the track".
"Darwin, Australia's gateway".
"Pioneer Country".
"Veins of Carbine Hill".
"Queen of the North".
"Campfire Tales".
"The Last Frontier". to name a few.
All good reads that offer a pretty good insight into our history albeit mainly the Territory and North Queensland.
Hector Holthouse wrote some good stuff too on the Queensland side of things. Try "Cannibal Cargoes", a bit of an eye opener covering our sordid history in the Kannaka trade days.
So far I havent seen a listing of what I consider to be the Australian classic adventure. "A Fortunate Life" by A.B. Facey. Perhaps not a history book in the true sense of the word but that book opened up so many exploratory avenues in my own family history that I consider it to be a prime requisite read.
Mandaley Perkins "Tropic Tide" is another good read, the story of a larger than life adventurer, VB Perkins, who worked alongside 'Weary' Dunlop on the Thai-Burma railway, worked in the Malayan jungles during the post war emergency, then set up the Territory's first major shipping line, and more.

An interesting thread. I have added a few books to my must read list from it. Thanks.
Regards
Glen