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2 disc collection, John Heyer’s 1954 classic film 60th anniversary edition
John Heyer’s 1954 classic film following an outback mailman along the Birdsville Track.
The development of inland Australia largely depends on the men who keep open the supply lines and communications – the outback mailmen.
Central Australia is world famous for its evocative landscape. The striking natural features, magnified by the clarity of the atmosphere give the land its oft-spoken timeless quality. An unexpected surprise is its wealth of animal and plant life-more bird species than in the whole of Britain; the greatest diversity of reptiles anywhere; and echoes of ancient rainforests long since vanished.
A Field Guide to Central Australia provides the traveller with a guide to the landscape, plants and animals that will be seen along the main tourist routes of The Centre. From Alice Springs, west to Kings Canyon, south to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and into the dunes of the Simpson Desert, the main habitats are described in detail-to explain not only what, but why a certain plant or animal is found where it is.
The combination of striking photography and road maps which also show which habitat you are driving through at a given time, gives a deeper understanding of how raw geology moulds the landscape into patterns of topography, soils and vegetation. Species descriptions of the commonly seen plants and animals cover birds, reptiles, arthropods, mammals, trees, shrubs and groundcovers.
430grms
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Born in 1894, Facey lived the rough frontier life of a sheep farmer, survived the gore of Gallipoli, raised a family through the Depression and spent sixty years with his beloved wife, Evelyn. Despite enduring hardships we can barely imagine today, Facey always saw his life as a ‘fortunate’ one.
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Len Beadell can lay claim to being the last of the great explorers of Australia: in the 1950s and 60s he undertook solo surveys which led to the building of roads through the most inaccessible tracts of the outback. But Len was more than just a surveyor-he was an author, cartoonist, raconteur and, above all,…
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It is about the lives and deaths of a number of different Australians and events which have influenced their lives, (and yours).
All poems are absolutely original.
A soft cover book, by Kurt G. Johannsen. Memoirs and Anecdotes of the life of a road train pioneer and bush inventor of the Northern territory of Australia.
Kurt Gerhardt Johannsen, born and bred in ‘The Red Centre’, is a quiet, modest man with a knack for improvising, fixing things and inventing solutions to the many problems he has encountered in his working life during the infancy of road transport, as well as in his mining and other adventures.
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Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other women and children whom the Japanese forece to walk for miles through the jungle, leading to the deaths of many. Due to her courageous spirit, Jean takes on the role of leader of the sorry gaggle of prisoners. While on the march, the group run into an Australian prisoner, Joe Harman, who helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished as a result. Jean’s adventures, and her bond with Joe, form the heart of this gripping and moving story.
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Here is a story of the lives of ordinary Australian women from 1788 to the present. Drawing on the information provided by hundreds of families, as well as material and photographs from archives never before published, Alison Alexander has created on enthralling and different history of a nation.
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This is a general overview of the Department of Mine and Energy of South Australia over the past 50 years. This book sets the scene and provides the story of the Mines Department in context of South Australia’s history.
Together with its predecessor, In Search of Mineral Wealth, this book is a recognition of the importance of the mining and petroleum industries to South Australia and of the wealth and material prosperity they have generated in and for the State.
Hard cover book with 655 pages.
A good book for your library shelf.
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The Flinders Ranges is one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth. Its colourful high mountains, cliffs and creek beds are a paradise for painters, photographers and geologists – and also for those who just want to enjoy the outback Today, good roads can take one well into these mountain ranges.
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Early in 1896 a man named Joseph Marlo went missing and was last seen in the company of Joshua Beard. In 1897, Walter Richards disappeared after joining Beard on a hunting trip. In court, on a charge of stealing articles of clothing from Richards, Beard suddenly confident that he would be believed told the court he would tell them the ‘honest truth’.
He claimed that Richards had accidently shot himself and after being questioned about Mario, Beard told police he had been killed by a kick from a horse. Beard’s explanations were not believed and after a hearing at Streaky Bay he was sent to Adelaide to stand trial for the murder of Waiter Richards.
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Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park
There are many powerful landscapes within Australia, however the hills and mountains of the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia stand tall amongst them all.
One can be in awe of the beauty of the Arkaroola region and Gammon Ranges set in harsh rugged mountain landscapes that have risen through the earth during millions of years of evolution, with its wining reeks and water holes that give life to the many living creatures of the area.
These landscape patterns and colours never cease to amaze those of us who have a strong interest in our natural world.
It can be said, it is the geological features that have made the area of world wide interest but it is vegetation that is also of much interest.
Trees, shrubs, grasses an herbs survive, continue to flower and produce seed. Then, with the right conditions, they germinate and begin to flower, continuing the cycle of life in this rocky terrain which is truly remarkable with rarely little moisture available, or soils to anchor themselves. Roots seeking minerals from weathering rock materials is a wonderful adaptation in this harsh but beautiful landscape.
This book is designed for the many people who walk, hike, camp and for botanists, photographers and the many who visit the area, be they from other parts for the country or overseas.
This plant book adds to the other written works carried out within the region of the Flinders Ranges.
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This is a remarkable story told for the first time in all its detail and with he understanding of an insider.
Just before World War I the Reverend John Flynn, a young Presbyterian clergyman from Victoria, set out to ease the loneliness of many outback people. Working under the banner of his Australian Inland Mission he eventually was helped by travelling padres who held religious services where two or three people and a child or two were gathered together, and by the young nurses who opened makeshift hospitals far from the doctor’s surgery. The difficulties they faced are traced in this book. We see Sister Latto Bett travelling on an open trolley along one of the few outback railways, and holding up an umbrella to protect her from the intense heat. We glimpse Padre Plowman riding a camel, for it was still the main carrier in a cast arid area.
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Friedrich Gerstacker, the most illustrious and prolific of German travel writers, set foot in Australia in March 1851, having walked across the Andes, traipsed the goldfields of California, and sailed over the Pacific in search in search of the new world.
Gerstacker found adventures aplenty in Australia. He paddled and trekked down the Murray, absorbed the excitement triggered by the discovery of gold, visited his countrymen in South Australia, and trained his outsider’s eyes on a colonial society gripped by profound change.
In this translated edition of Gerstacker’s book Australien, his lively travelogue is made available for the first time in English. Rarely has Australia’s colonial past been presented with such insight, humour and entertainment.
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In 1872 Ernest Giles set out to explore Central Australia and was subsequently inspired to cross Australia from east to west in 1875 and 1876. Australia Twice Traversed is his record of these historic expeditions.
Also includes 6 maps
Another book would be Ernest Giles by Ray Ericksen
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Pioneers of the Inland 1860s-1930s
Between 1870 and 1920 as many as 2000 cameleers and 20,000 camels arrived in Australia from Afghanistan and northern India. Australia’s Muslim Cameleers: Pioneers of the inland 1860s-1930s is a rich pictorial history of these men, their way of life and the vital role they played in pioneering transport and communication routes across outback Australia’s vast expanses. Many of the images and artefacts in this fascinating account are published here for the first time, and the book contains a biographical listing of more than 1200 cameleers.
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