Australia ImaginedEdited by Judith Johnston and Monica Anderson
2005
978 1 920694 455 $38.95 Pb  Add to cart
Australia Imagined is an engaging anthology of 19th Century articles and cartoons from British periodicals presenting Victorian views of Australian colonial society. Included are articles, book reviews, short stories, poetry and practical advice to intending emigrants by writers such as Charles Dickens, Caroline Chisholm, William Thackeray, Henry Parkes, Louisa Lawson and others – all of whom view England’s former penal colony as being an inferior and impossibly remote place seemingly devoid of its own political or cultural identity.
While Great Britain remained ‘home’ and Australia ‘over there’ throughout this period, this snapshot of changing colonial attitudes is both insightful and entertaining. A comic piece written just weeks after the first settlers arrived at the Swan River Colony lampoons their pastoral ambitions, there is trenchant criticism of the colonial position on land rights and the prevailing patriarchy as well as some nascent blueprints for an emerging national psyche concerned with issues such as water resources, the status of Aborigines, immigration and the dominance of sport in the national psyche— many of which find echoes in 21st Century Australia.
Bigger Than GallipoliLiz Reed
2004
978 1 920694 196 $38.95 Pb  Add to cart
Bigger Than Gallipoli provides an in–depth analysis of Australia Remembers, a year–long, national programme of events in 1995 which commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Liz Reed expertly analyses how Australia Remembers represented ‘remembrance’ visually - both in text and in spectacle. This Australian experience is contextualized alongside similar events held in Canada and New Zealand as Bigger Than Gallipoli goes on to explore how key themes of nostalgia, memory and commemoration contribute to Australian identity as well as how previously ignored groups such as women and Indigenous Australian have been reintegrated back into the nation’s wartime history.
Blood, Sweat and WelfareMary Anne Jebb
2003
978 1 876268 611 $34.95 Pb Add to cart
Western Australian History Foundation Award 2001 (Winner)
Australian Historical Association Centenary of Federation Award (Winner)
W. K. Hancock Prize 2004 (Winner)
NSW Premier's Book Awards 2002 (Shortlisted)
2003 Ernest Scott History Prize (Shortlisted)
The arrival of European settlers in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley Region began a turbulent and violent era for its Indigenous inhabitants. When the latter were finally granted cash wages in 1950 for their work on white-owned cattle stations and farms, it was little more than 'pocket money' and did nothing to alleviate appalling working conditions.
In this absorbing study, survivors of this devastating time speak openly to author Mary Anne Jebb about first contact between blacks and whites, the arrival of welfare and the demise of pastoralism in the Kimberley. Alongside their moving oral histories, Jebb draws on an exhaustive range of archival material to explore the real story of Kimberley settlement in ways that have powerful implications for Australia as a whole.
‘Jebb's book is a mine of fascinating information.’ - Quadrant
‘Blood, Sweat and Welfare is one of the best books currently available about race relations on the pastoral frontier. It is required reading for anyone interested in Aboriginal history.’ - Henry Reynolds
Building a Colony:
Studies in Western Australian History, Volume 24Distributed by UWA Press Jacqui Sherriff and Anne Blake
2006
978 1 740521 293 $25.00 Pb Add to cart
This
bumper issue of Studies in Western Australian History contains articles
addressing the state’s convict past: the journey of the convicts to the
Swan River Colony; case studies highlighting different aspects of the
convict experience; the legacy of the convicts’ labour in building the
colony; a review of Andrew Gill’s ground-breaking work, Convict
Assignment in Western Australia: The Parkhurst ‘Apprentices’ 1842-1851;
a comprehensive list of the latest in academic research produced
between 1997 and 2005 on an extraordinary range of Western Australian
history topics from all WA universities; and handy research tools
designed to assist readers wanting to research their family’s distant
convict past.
C. Y. O’Connor:
His Life And LegacyAnthony G. Evans2003
978 1 876268 778 $29.95 Pb Add to cart
Charles Yelverton O'Connor is a legendary figure in early colonial civil engineering who changed the face and fortunes of both New Zealand and Australia in the second half of the 19th Century. But O’Connor’s work, now revered and celebrated, was derided and undervalued by many of his contemporaries – prompting the engineer to take his own life.
In this definitive biography, Anthony Evans explores the genius and tragic, lonely death of C. Y. O’Connor as well as enigmatic engineer’s outstanding legacy.
‘The story of C. Y. O'Connor has the mysterious logic of a classic tragedy – knowing the plot never quite prepares you for the inevitable spilling of blood.’
- The West Australian
‘...the definitive biography...’ -The Australian
‘Congratulations to Tony Evans on a substantial contribution to the writing of Australian history ... there is unlikely to be a better biography of C. Y. O'Connor.’ -Kim Beazley
Contested Country: A History of the Northcliffe Area, Western AustraliaPatricia Crawford and Ian Crawford2003
978 1 920694 005 $38.95 Pb Add to cart
2004 NSW Premier's History Award For Regional & Community History (Winner)
Whose country is it? Who decides how the land should be managed? In exploring these fundamental questions, Contested Country presents divergent views on Aboriginal land rights, environmental issues and, in particular, the future of our forests.
Focusing on the area surrounding Northcliffe, a small country town deep in the cool, rainy karri country of Western Australia’s southwest coastal plain, Patricia and Ian Crawford argue that differing attitudes to the land underlie many of the current divisions between Aboriginal and European, city and country. Northcliffe is here presented as a microcosm of Australian society through which the authors seek to understand the land, the conflicting views over its use and the way people have sought to shape it to their own purposes – all with a view to preserving one of the most botanically diverse areas in Australia.
‘A very interesting book.’ - History West
‘Contested Country gives us good insights into the ways various people have utilised and contested the karri forest.’ - JAS Review of Books
Gallipoli: The Western Australian StoryWes Olson
2006
978 1 920694 82X $59.95 Hb Add to cart
Providing a fresh perspective on the epic World War I military campaign fought along the bloody shores of the Dardanelles, Gallipoli is a vivid retelling of the ANZAC legend as experienced by Western Australian soldiers on their fateful journey from initial enlistment and treacherous landing through until their sombre withdrawal eight months later – often recounted using the soldiers’ own words.
Drawing on personal accounts and official records, Olson introduces readers to the larrikin Ben Bailey, heroic Douglas Barrett-Lennard, resourceful John Simpson and future acclaimed author, Albert Facey, amongst others – allowing readers to tread in these heroic young men’s shadowy footsteps through each painstaking battle (during which many would lose their lives).
Wes Olson’s Gallipoli is a vital contribution to Western Australian history as well as an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to learn more about one of the defining experiences of a young nation - one that is still alive in the hearts of many Australians today.
In Pursuit of Plants:
Experiences of Early Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Plant CollectorsPhilip Short
2003
978 1 876268 980 $54.95 Hb Add to cart
In this compelling compilation of first-hand accounts, pioneering plant collectors pursue exotic plants in equally exotic places – often at great peril. In the wilds of Surinam, F.W. Hostmann allowed vampire bats to suck his toes; in west Africa, William Grant Milne was forced to sell his clothes and travel naked for two hundred miles; Thomas Drummond was attacked by bears in the North American woods; George Forrest narrowly escaped rampaging lamas in western China; and, across in Fiji, Berthold Seemann fearlessly recorded which plants cannibals used to accompany their feasts of human flesh.
Extracted from journals and letters – many previously unpublished – In Pursuit of Plants combines a glorious selection of 19th Century botanical art, modern photographs and detailed botanical taxonomies with some highly adventuresome, humorous and perilous tales from the plant world.
‘This is high drama of such an order that I put everything aside for two days to complete reading it and then regretted when it was completed.’ – Malcolm Campbell in Gardening Australia
‘A fascinating read.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
‘[This book] will appeal to professional and amateur botanists, gardeners and anyone interested in natural history and travel.’ - The Age
Mapping Colonial Conquest:
Australia and South Africaedited by Norman Etherington2007
978 0980269 44 0 $39.95 Pb  Add to cart A cross-disciplinary survey of the history of cartography in Australia and Southern Africa, Mapping Colonial Conquest
charts the trajectories of both colonial conquest and mapping
technologies in both regions. Cartography is herein revealed to be the
product of powerful social formations (fiscal, dynastic, military,
commercial and imperial), informing not only where we see ourselves in
the world but also how our cultural, historical and economic identities
have developed over time.
Orchard and Mill:
The Story of Bill Lee, South-West PioneerLyn Adams (For the Bunbury Oral History Group)2007
978 1 920694 242 $24.95 Pb Add to cart
Orchard and Mill provides a marvelous insight into the daily workings of orchards and timber mills in Southwestern Australia spanning the entire 20th Century.
Lyn Adams here records Bill Lee's stories and photographs, giving shape to his detailed recollections of emigrating to Australia from England as a young boy with his parents and the family’s hard work over many years in establishing an orchard near the town of Argyle.
The Scarlet Mile:
A Social History of Prostitution in Kalgoorlie, 1894 - 2004Elaine McKewon
2007
978 1 920694 226 $38.95 Pb Add to cart
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia – a desert gold rush town that for over a century has been a Mecca for prospectors with dreams of striking the ‘mother load’.
But here in this frontier town, a lucrative trade of a very different kind has an equally compelling and colourful history, as ‘Scarlet Women’ – vilified by some as ‘the Harlots of the Goldfields’ - have long provided comfort to successive generations of lonely men trying to make their fortune along Western Australia’s famous Golden Mile.
The Scarlet Mile provides a fascinating social history of prostitution in Kalgoorlie, where local brothels and a police station have been unlikely neighbors for more than a century.
‘… an entertaining and fascinating read.’ - The Golden Mail
‘… an extremely readable book, for it is richly peppered with first-person accounts, photographs and snippets from newspapers and other primary sources.’ – Wet Ink
Settlers, Servants and Slaves: Aboriginal and European Children in Nineteenth Century Western AustraliaPenelope Hetherington
2004
978 1 876268 735 $34.95 Pb Add to cart
Settlers, Servants and Slaves documents the colonial era exploitation of both European and Aboriginal children by the settler elite of 19th Century Western Australia.
In a struggling colony desperately short of labour, early settlers relied on the labour of convicted and neglected children. Press-ganged into institutions, they were trained to become a useful part of the work force without any concern for their education or welfare.
Settlers, Servants and Slaves also shows how concern over 'the problem' of children of mixed descent proved to be an ominous precursor to even more socially divisive 20th Century ‘solutions’ – namely, the forced removal of Indigenous children from their parents and the establishment of Aboriginal Reserves.
‘An absorbing and important book that has the potential to change the way Western Australian history is viewed.’ - Journal of Australian Studies
‘Penelope Hetherington provides a thorough review of evidence for European and Aboriginal childhoods in WA.’ - History West
Western Australia As It Is Today – 1906Edited and translated by Richard Bosworth and Margot Melia
1997
978 1 875560 971 $14.25 Pb Add to cart
In 1905, Royal Consul Leopoldo Zunini arrived in Albany to establish an Italian consulate. Much to his surprise, he discovered that Albany was no longer the principal port of Western Australia and, upon correcting his mistake, pursued what was to become his great passion – a migration scheme for Italian settlers.
Western Australia As It Is Today – 1906 draws on Zunini’s journals as he traveled throughout the state and provides a unique perspective on Western Australian society at the dawn of the 20th Century.
‘This translation could well become a historical classic.’ - Sunday Times
The Workshops:
A History of the Midlan Government Railway WorkshopsPatrick Bertola and Bobbie Oliver
2006
1 920694 838 $45.00 Pb Add to cart Winner, WA Premier's Literature Awards 2006
For ninety years, the Government Railway Workshops at Midland were the largest industrial workshops in Western Australia, training tradesmen to build and repair locomotive engines, rolling stock and maintain a railway network that was at the heart of the state’s economic development. Widespread community outrage greeted the State Government’s decision to close the Workshops, but numerous campaigns to prevent their demise proved unsuccessful, and the Workshops’ gates closed for the final time in March 1994.
The Workshops records the history of this important industrial facility. The product of more than two hundred hours of interviewing former employees, editor-historians Drs Patrick Bertola and Bobbie Oliver combine these employee histories with archival photographs and essays by experts in railway, labour, social and engineering history in this informative tribute to the workers and industrial legacy of the Midland Workshops.
The Wollaston Journals – Volume IIIEdited by Helen Mann and Geoffrey Bolton
2006
978 1 875560 033 $54.95 Hb Add to cart
The Wollaston Journals – Volume III is the final volume of a revised edition of the journals of Anglican clergyman John Ramsden Wollaston, who migrated to Australia with his family in 1841 and who made a significant contribution throughout the early years of the Swan River Colony.
Volume III covers the period 1848–1856, during which Reverend Wollaston was transferred from Bunbury to Albany and his subsequent appointment as the first Archdeacon of Western Australia. Volume III differs from previous volumes by including a significantly greater proportion of Wollaston’s correspondence (private, official and public), which reveal the Reverend’s relationships with friends, colleagues and government officers; topics of contemporary religious and social discourse; and particular projects such as the development of the Annesfield Aboriginal community in Albany.
More than a century and a half after his death, The Wollaston Journals - Volume III completes the life story of a remarkable pioneer.
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