Batavia
Peter FitzSimons
Heinemann, PB, 9781864711349
Described by author Peter FitzSimons as 'a true Adults Only version of Lord of the Flies, meeting Nightmare on Elm Street,' the story is set in 1629, when the pride of the Dutch East India Company, the Batavia, is on its maiden voyage en route from Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies, laden down with the greatest treasure to leave Holland. ... More/Buy
The Changi Brownlow
Roland Perry
Hachette, PB, 9780733629754
After Singapore falls to the Japanese early in 1942, 70 000 prisoners including 15 000 Australians, are held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To amuse themselves and fellow inmates, a group of sportsmen led by the indefatigable and popular Chicken Smallhorn, created an Australian Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches. The final game of ... More/Buy
Desert Boys: Australians at war from Beersheba to Tobruk and El Alamein
Peter Rees
Allen & Unwin, PB, 9781743311684
About 1300 Australians died in the desert campaigns of World War I, while another 3500 died in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Thousands more carried the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Countless families were left behind to mourn the dead and comfort the injured. A ripple effect of grief passed down the ... More/Buy
Faith, fashion, fusion: Muslim women's style in Australia
Glynis Jones (ed)
Powerhouse Publishing, PB, 9781863171434
This absorbing publication explores a relatively new sector in the local Australian fashion industry - part of a global phenomenon - where faith and fashion form a new relationship. From street style to red carpet dresses, this book explores the emerging modest fashion industry and the work of a new generation of Australian designers and retailers offering stylish clothing for Muslim ... More/Buy
Fighter Pilot: Mis-Adventures beyond the sound barrier with an Australian Top Gun
Mac 'Serge' Tucker
Allen & Unwin, PB, 9781743310199
Mac Tucker, or 'Serge' to use his callsign name, is one of an elite group of men trained to fly F-18 jets. Now, for the first time, Serge takes you behind the scenes of the fighter pilot world to reveal what it's really like. Find out how it feels to be shot at by SAS snipers, to be lost in a ... More/Buy
Flood Country: An Environmental History of The Murray-Darling Basin
Emily O'Gorman
CSIRO, PB, 9780643101586
Flood Country brings the Murray-Darling Basin's flood history into conversation with contemporary national debates about climate change and competing access to water for livelihoods, industries and ecosystems. It provides an important new historical perspective on this significant region of Australia, exploring how people, rivers and floods have re-made each ... More/Buy
Flying the Southern Cross: The Adventures of Aviators Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm
Michael Molkentin
National Library of Australia, PB, 9780642277466
Australian aviators Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm made the first trans-Pacific flight in 1928 in an aircraft constructed largely of timber and fabric, the Southern Cross. With Americans Jim Warner as radio operator and Harry Lyon as navigator, they made the trip from Oakland, California, in nine days, facing electrical storms, torrential rain, equipment breakdowns, fuel shortages and the ever-present ... More/Buy
Griffith REVIEW 37: Small World
Julianne Schultz (ed)
Griffith Review, PB, 9781921922596
As a nation girt by sea, global travel has always been central to Australia’s identity; from Indigenous people to the passengers of the First Fleet leaving their homeland for a destination beyond the limits of the known world. We are a nation of immigrants, tourists and expats who are more at home than ever in the global village, where boundaries and ... More/Buy
Howzat!: Kerry Packer's War
Christopher Lee
New South, PB, 9781742233604
England, Summer 1975. The Australian cricket team, visiting for an Ashes series, fields players who will become legends of the game — Ian Chappell, Rodney Marsh, Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson — against celebrated English power-cricketers Tony Greig, John Snow and Phil Edmonds. It is the pinnacle of the game of cricket — the two oldest enemies in the game going head ... More/Buy
Icon in Crisis: The reinvention of CSIRO
Ron Sandland, Graham Thompson
UNSW, PB, 9781742233390
In 2001, CSIRO's future looked shaky. The Australian government had announced a big increase in public funding for science, but had pointedly left the iconic national research agency out when it came to distributing the cash. Facing the threat of funding cuts and loss of reputation, CSIRO set about reinventing itself through what became known as its National Flagship Initiative. This ... More/Buy
Killing Mr Rent-a-Kill: The life & death of notorious hitman Christopher Dale Flannery
Duncan McNab
Macmillan, PB, 9781742611594
Christopher Dale Flannery received his first criminal conviction at the age of fourteen. Within twenty years, he would become one of the most feared criminals in Australia, believed to be responsible for up to a dozen murders, most of which he was never tried for. His crimes would create a worldwide media storm and his disappearance would go on to become ... More/Buy
The Making of Modern Australia
William McInnes
Hachette, PB, 9780733627804
Filled with reminiscences about Australia since World War Two plus William s own anecdotes and observations, THE MAKING OF MODERN AUSTRALIA touches on the celebrations, sorrows and spirit of the last 70 years. It creates a national picture of our past and present, told through four main themes of romance, religion, family and home. From the stories of service personnel returning ... More/Buy
Mine-field: The Dark Side of Australia's Resource Rush
Paul Cleary
Black Inc, PB, 9781863955706
Whether it be coal-seam gas, LNG or coal mega-mines, a resources rush is happening in just about every productive corner of our country. Yet at the same time oversight and regulation have been hollowed out. High-risk projects are being approved without proper assessment of the long-term consequences. Water resources, farmland and national parks are under threat, and people, communities and industries ... More/Buy
Mining Towns: Making a living, making a life
Erik Eklund
UNSW, PB, 9781742233529
At any given moment in our history Australia has been in the middle of a mining boom. This timely book is a history of the iconic Australian towns that arose with these booms over a century: Broken Hill, Mount Isa, Queenstown, Mount Morgan, Port Pirie and Kambalda. Mining Towns shows the rich cultural and historical legacy these towns helped create as ... More/Buy
A Premier's State
Steve Bracks, Ellen Whinnett
MUP, PB, 9780522860795
By the time he was forty-eight, Steve Bracks had achieved the goal he'd set himself nine years earlier. He was premier of Victoria. In A Premier's State he reflects on his ambition to make a difference, and how he reached his goal. He talks about his early childhood growing up in a conservative but impassioned family that supported the Democratic Labor ... More/Buy
QF21
Richard de Crespigny
Macmillan, PB, 9781742611174
On 4 November 2010, a flight from Singapore to Sydney came within a knife edge of being one of the world's worst air disasters. Shortly after leaving Changi Airport, an explosion shattered Engine 2 of Qantas flight QF32 - an Airbus A380, the largest and most advanced passenger plane ever built. Hundreds of pieces of shrapnel ripped through the wing and ... More/Buy
Side Show: Dumbing Down Democracy
Lindsay Tanner
Scribe Publications, PB, 9781921844898
'The two key rules that now govern the practice of Australian politics are: (1) Look like you're doing something; and (2) Don't offend anyone who matters. These imperatives are a direct consequence of the interaction between media coverage and political activity - the aggregated outcome of countless individuals acting rationally in pursuit of their own interests. The sideshow syndrome, the overall ... More/Buy
The Stories That Changed Australia: 50 Years of Four Corners
Sally Neighbour
ABC Books, PB, 9780733331053
In the fifty years it's been on air, Four Corners has broken more stories, triggered more headlines, generated more controversy and aired more high quality investigative journalist than any other program in Australia. In today's world of 24-hour news cycles it is an anarchronism, "a television miracle" as Kerry O Brien puts it in his introduction to this book. But when ... More/Buy
Tony Speaks!: The Wisdom of the Abbott
Black Inc
Black Inc, PB, 9781863955836
In the grand tradition of Bushisms and The Wit of Whitlam, here are the sayings of Abbott's, unvarnished and rich in revelation - the very best and worst of Australia's irrepressible mad monk. Tony speaks - on honesty: 'One man's lie is another man's judgement call.' Poverty: 'we just can't stop people from being homeless if that's their choice.' Climate change: ... More/Buy
The True Story of Ned Kelly's Last Stand: New revelations unearthed about the bloody siege at Glenrowan
Paul Terry
Allen & Unwin, PB, 9781743310069
When Ned Kelly fought his Last Stand at Glenrowan, he made his suit of armour and a tiny bush pub part of Australian folklore. But what really happened at the Glenrowan Inn when the Kelly Gang took up arms against the government? Who was there when the bullets began to fly and how did their actions help to set the course of ... More/Buy
Vietnam: The complete story of the Australian war
Bruce Davies, Gary McKay
Allen & Unwin, HB, 9781741750287
For Bruce Davies and Gary McKay, the history of Vietnam - its wars, colonial domination, its search for freedom and its subsequent loss - speaks to an Australian anxiety of a very small population far away from the centre of an empire to which it was firmly committed. The rise of Japan, the War in the Pacific and the postcolonial independence ... More/Buy