Shop
‘Holding the Line’ describes the history of the Dog Fence Board and was commissioned to mark the celebrations of the first hundred years of Federation of South Australia. The book was jointly funded by Centenary of Federation South Australia and the Dog Fence Board in recognition of the important contribution that the Dog Fence has…
Read More
This is an extremely well researched work which will be treasured by all horse riders. It is a very thorough account of Australian spurs and the bush blacksmiths like Fred Gutte who designed his on Wave Hill Station, but it is much more than that. It offers a romantic folklore of the horsemen who used the spurs in their sometimes dangerous and often lonely rides on the cattle stations between outback Queensland and the Kimberley.
Read More
Life Story of a Family in the Outback This is a real-life story of the Outback that will make you proud to be Australian. Joe Mahood is an outback Mr Fix-It. He is also a boots-and-all reincarnation of Jeanie Gunn’s romantic Malluka in We of the Never Never. The Mahood family are battlers who never…
Read More
This book is a great publication, a black hard with a blue dust jacket containing 359 pages including the index. Rocks and minerals were used in South Australia many thousands of years before European settlement. Some of the first manufactured items in South Australia were undoubtedly of mineral origin. Chalcedony, flint, slate and other rocks…
Read More
In the middle of nowhere is the compelling true account of 18 year old nurse Terry Augustus and John Underwood, a young born and bred cattleman she found flat on his back in Ward 3 of St Vincent’s Hospital, nursing a serious spinal injury sustained while mustering cattle. John was itching to get home to his family’s cattle station in the Northern Territory. He promised Terry he’d write.
Read More
This is the first book to trace the history of the Afghan and Indian camel drivers in Australia
Read More
It is highly unlikely that any other edible Australian Native Plant has created as much interest as Native Peach/Quandong, Santalum acuminatum. This plant is now embedded in Australian folklore and holds nostalgic memories for many people.
This fully illustrated book follows its journey through prehistoric times, ancient Aboriginal history, botany, Australian land exploration, early settlers, arts and craft through to farming the species and its use as a popular cooking ingredient in modern Australia.
It is highly unlikely that any other edible Australian Native Plant has created as much interest as Native Peach/Quandong, Santalum acuminatum.
Read More
JOHN FLYNN is one of Australia’s greatest folk heroes. His achievements are the stuff of legend: no other Australian has had more monuments dedicated to him than John Flynn.
Ivan Rudolph
Read More
Brolga’s deep love and respect for animals went back to childhood, but for years he had led a nomadic life drifting from one job to the next never settling. This moment was a turning point. Brolga tenderly nursed the baby joey back to health and realised that if he could save one orphan then he could save another.
Over the years Brolga has watched how kangaroo mums care for their young. He now uses what he’s learned to give these helpless creatures a second chance; feeding them, bathing them, doing everything a mother would.
Living simply in a one-room tin shack in Alice Springs, this tough, 6’7″ Australian has dedicated his life to painstakingly caring for his kangaroo ‘mob’ before releasing them into the sanctuary he has created.
Here, Brolga describes life with the joeys and how through his care and love for them a lifelong bond is created. We meet Roger and Ella and the other kangaroos, and come to understand how this unique relationship between one man and these beloved animals not only saved their lives, but gave purpose to his.
Read More
Lily Barton is beautiful, adventurous and looking for a complete life change. Sami, her daughter, is driving alone through the outback to finally, reluctantly confront her family roots. Together they are swept into a world where myths and reality converge, as they find that everyone they meet has a story to tell and a secret to share.
Read More
It was an early spring day in the 1940’s when my grandfather took me by the hand for a stroll in the once local bushland close to where I lived in the south east corner of South Australia. As a small boy I recall the height of Bracken ern. To me it seemed like a forest.
In an open area he would stop and point out yellow flowers and ask me to smell the fragrance. he called them Wattles. I think that must have had hypnotic effect on me as now 75 years later I often find myself stopping to smell the Wattle blooms in spring time. Little did I imagine back then that most of my whole working life would be inter-twined with plants native to the country in which I was born. Wattles, or botanically Acacias they are correctly known, would be a big part of those Australian native plants.
Acacias, or wattles as they are commonly known are the most widely distributed plant growing on the Australian continent, with some 1,063 known species to date.
This practical guide explores the possibilities of growing some of the temperate and arid Acacias as a food source and for conservation. It covers seed collection, propagation, Aboriginal language names, food and nutritional value and much more.
Another chapter of interest includes people who, in their own way, tell the author of their experiences with this iconic Australia genera.
Read More
When Harold Bell Lasseter disappeared in late 1930 it could have been the end of a mystery. Thirty-three years earlier he had staggered out of the desert, almost dead, his pockets bulging with gold, claiming to have found a 15 kilometre gold reef. The mystery deepened when he and a surveyor returned to the isolated and mysterious ranges where the reef was supposed to be located. It became legendary when the largest inland expedition since Burke and Wills was launched.
In LASSETER’S GOLD, Warren Brown vividly recreates the drama of the search – the characters, the fights, the soaring temperatures, the impossible terrain, the plane crash, the pistol-carrying dingo-skinner who appeared out of nowhere. And just who was this man Lasseter? A one-time sailor, a bigamist, a man who claimed John Bradfield stole his plans for a single-span bridge to cross Sydney Harbour – was he also a very, very good liar?
LASSETER’S GOLD is the gripping story of an outback legend. Is it just a myth – or is there really a massive gold reef out there, just waiting to be discovered?
The Shepparton Talk
Len Beadell has been named the last True Australian Explorer for opening up over 2.5 million square kilometres of rugged Australian Outback. Follow the stories of Len through one of his many public speaking engagements.
Listened to and loved by people of all generations.
Read More
Enduring the extremes of isolation Len and his mates truly made their mark on outback Australia. He dubbed this group the “Gunbarrel Road Construction Party” and together they created more than 6000 kilometers of roads across, and in some cases hitherto unexplored, parts of Australia.
This occurred during the “cold war” years of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
Len was still in the Australian Army Survey Corps following war service in New Guinea and as the project to test intercontinental ballistic missiles was “top secret” he was given the job to locate and survey a site suitable for these tests and it was Len who chose Woomera as that site.
This road network was given access to military and scientific personnel during the rocket testing trials from Woomera and atomic test at Emu and Maralinga.
Running time 80 minutes.
Read More
Australia’s Atomic Bomb and Rocket Roads – Len Beadell’s name is now part of the folklore of the Australian outback, and he has achieved something resembling hero status amongst many people who might be inclined to describe themselves as “typical Australians”.
Read More