Australian Memoir

When a nine-year-old R.A. Dalkey decided he was going to become an Outback truck driver, the poor Australia-besotted boy had no idea what he was getting into. He’d been born on the wrong continent, for a start. And even if he could make it out of Africa one day, where was an Australian work visa to come from? A sensible adult would have filed that dream away as a juvenile fantasy and gotten on with life. Especially after taking five attempts to get the most basic of car licenses. But R.A. Dalkey never claimed to be a sensible adult, did he?

Tribal chiefs living in remote villages high in the unreached mountains of Yemen. An ordinary Sydney doctor lacking confidence in his own abilities, yet with a message to share. What God does is exceptional. Michael Babbage’s story of being led, protected, and provided for, together with his family, in their missionary travels to Yemen and Pakistan makes gripping listening.

For more than 30 years, H. G. Nelson has been finding the poetry in the punt and humour during half-time. Now, he turns his keen eye for facts and folly to the illustrious history of our great sporting nation. In his trademark fast and furious style, H. G. dives deep into the moments that have truly made us who we are. He reminds us of our leaders' great sporting triumphs, from Harold Holt's swimming to John Howard's bowling, rewrites the record on legends such as 'Aussie Joe' Bugner and Jack Brabham; and explains why Australia's reality TV is the best in the world.

The ultimate collection of Australia's craziest cons and mad schemes from a master storyteller. Australia is the birthplace and setting of some of the wildest, craziest and least-likely-to-succeed cons and rorts in history. From the cleverest double-crosses to the most unlikely and maddest schemes, master storyteller Jim Haynes reminds us that we've never been shy of pulling a trick or two.

Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly–the ultimate outlaw–and just below him, the tragic figure of Ben Hall, who joined a gang led by a man whose name today is less well known, but in his time was much more famous than any other: Frank Gardiner. Mastermind of the largest gold robbery in Australia’s history, Gardiner led an extraordinary life, the full telling of which is long overdue. In a tough country and among a group of tough men, Gardiner was the toughest of them all.

The devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires threw the importance of our volunteer firefighters into sharp focus. But these brave men and women don't just step up to protect life and property in fires; they are also there to help in road accidents, plane crashes, natural disasters like cyclones and floods - and, yes, they even rescue pets that have got themselves into strife. This audiobook serves as a tribute to the thousands of volunteer firies across Australia who roll up their sleeves and selflessly put their lives on the line to assist their fellow human beings.

In these 65 original stories, we hear of the explosive introduction of World Series Cricket in 1977, which turned a genteel endeavour into a high-octane contest, and the clash of the titans as Packer and Murdoch squared off over the Super League war. We see Rugby Union become a battleground for race and the Olympics an arena for sublime acts of courage and achievement.

Kate Ceberano is used to a hush descending as she draws breath to release that magnificent voice but when the whole world quietened in 2020, she found the silence disorientating. Without an audience or long hours of travel with her tribe of musicians, there was time to think. But what does an artist do when they can’t make art? They find a way. With characteristic passion, abundance and joy, Kate liberated her unsung songs.

At just 15-years-old, Geena had no choice but to leave home. Without an education or any real options, she found herself being lured into the sex industry by the promise of big money and the validation of strangers. She turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain of day to day life as a call girl and to overcome the emotional scars of her past. But even in her darkest hours, Geena refused to accept her circumstances and never stopped striving for freedom and a better life. Eventually, she found the strength to turn things around and set herself on a path to a brighter future.

Una espectácular crónica sobre el ascenso a la cima del tenis mundial de la dupla conocida como el Colombian Power. El sábado 13 de julio de 2019, Robert Farah y Juan Sebastián Cabal se coronaron campeones de Wimbledon —el torneo más antiguo y prestigioso del tenis profesional—, luego de una batalla de titanes que duró casi cinco horas y que los llevó a levantar el trofeo más anhelado por cualquier tenista en el mundo.

Within the chapters of System Exposed: Heartbeat of My Life, Julie shares her horrific childhood story; complete with child abuse, homelessness, juvenile jails, institutional care, lies and cover ups from trusted officials. The government just closed their eyes and allowed everything told within to happen to many children.

City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or other countries to build new futures in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stands them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s to the author's own mother's experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast to the present day.

There's another side to Australian Football League legends such as Jason Dunstall, Shane Crawford, and James Hird, not to mention Kevin Sheedy's little quirks. Have you heard the story about the time Sheeds had to play the part of one of the Three Little Pigs? Or how hysterical chickens found their way into Bomber Thompson's new car during training? Who put white powder in the Essendon doctor's bag that was then detected at the airport? And why is John Platten a 'footy-trip legend'?

Between 1989 and 2006, there were 5,226 homicides in Australia. Serial homicides account for 1% of this astonishing number of murders that were committed by 13 known offenders.

Australian magazines once boasted the highest circulation per capita in the world. Former magazine editor Phil Barker follows the story from this golden age to today, showing how mismanagement, unchecked spending, and the challenge presented by the rise of the internet all combined to undermine the previously unassailable position magazines held in the Australian consciousness.

It was the summer of 1944 as liberating Allied forces surged toward Paris following the D-Day landings. For a large group of downed airmen being held in that city’s infamous Fresnes Prison, they were about to face evacuation into the blackest, bloody heart of Germany and experience the most acute evil of the war. Amid great secrecy, those 168 airmen—including several from Australia and New Zealand—were transported on a filthy, overcrowded nightmare train journey which ended at the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp, accompanied by orders for their execution.

A proud Gunai/Kurnai woman, Veronica Gorrie grew up dauntless, full of cheek and a fierce sense of justice. After watching her friends and family suffer under a deeply compromised law-enforcement system, Gorrie signed up for training to become one of a rare few Aboriginal police officers in Australia. In her 10 years in the force, she witnessed appalling institutional racism and sexism and fought past those things to provide courageous and compassionate service to civilians in need, many Aboriginal themselves.

In a quiet Sydney street in 1937, a seven-year-old immigrant boy drowned in a ditch that had filled with rain after being left unfenced by council workers. How the law should deal with the trauma of the family’s loss was one of the most complex and controversial cases to reach Australia’s High Court, where it seized the imagination of its youngest and cleverest member.

Leading Australian Icons in Music covers several different genres of Australian music that have made the most significant impact on the music scene in the past 50 years. The profiles of these talented individuals are explored in greater detail than other books, focusing not only on their sales but also their upbringing and personal experiences. You’ll find that a lot of these musicians have similar values and morals, and these values are what helped them become the musical influences that they are today.

On Lust and On Longing together for the first time. When On Lust was first published it caused a media sensation: Blanche d'Alpuget wrote of a pillar of society who had molested children and of events that ended in mystery. Now she reveals all. On Longing caused a similar sensation, for different reasons. D'Alpuget dared to write that she loved and had inspired love in a man already adored by the public. Here are the raw and timeless themes of the power and powerlessness inherent to lust, love, loss and death.