Australian History

Louise Lovely: Australia’s First Movie Star is a captivating biography that delves into the life and career of Louise Lovely, Australia's first Hollywood star of the silent era. Born Nellie Louise Carbasse, Lovely's journey from her beginnings in Sydney when she first appeared on stage at the age of 9 in 1904, to her career as a world-renowned actress is nothing short of extraordinary. The book explores her early days, shrouded in mystery, and her rise to fame in both Australia and Hollywood. Lovely appeared in over fifty-five motion pictures between 1911 and 1922, becoming a ...

The ocean has shaped and sustained life on Earth from the beginning of time. Its vast waters are alive with meaning, and connect every living thing on Earth. Deep Water is a hymn to the beauty, mystery and wonder of the ocean. Weaving together science, history and personal experience, it offers vital new ways of understanding not just humanity's relationship with the planet, but our past - and perhaps most importantly, our future.

El 29 de febrero del año 2000, John Price pidió una orden de alejamiento contra su novia, Katherine Knight. Más tarde, ese mismo día, dijo a sus compañeros de trabajo que ella le había apuñalado y que si alguna vez desaparecía, era porque Knight le había matado. Come hombres, es el relato dramático y apasionante de la primera mujer en Australia condenada a cadena perpetua sin libertad condicional, con la adición especial de "nunca ser liberada". La fascinante narración de Ryan Green introduce al oyente en el horror real experimentado por la víctima.

When Ned Kelly and his band of young tearaways ambushed and killed three brave policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878, they sparked the biggest and most expensive manhunt Australia had seen. The desperate search would end when Kelly and his gang, wearing suits of armour, tried to derail a train before waging their final bloody gun battle with police in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.

Soon after the declaration of war on Japan, a secret military reconnaissance unit was established, based on the British Special Operations Executive (known as SOE) and called the Inter-allied Services Department. The unit was tasked with the role to "obtain and report information of the enemy...weaken the enemy by sabotage and destruction of morale and to lend aid and assistance to local efforts to the same end in enemy occupied territories."

The Birdsville Track runs through three deserts, from Marree in northern South Australia, to Birdsville in outback Queensland. This legendary, dirt road has a rich folk history, intriguing culture, and unique ecosystems. But it doesn't give up its secrets easily, unless you have the Birdsville Track Audio Tour of course!

For months during 1943 there was no night in Hellfire Pass. By the light of flares, carbide lamps and bamboo fires, men near-naked and skeletal cut a passage through stone to make way for a railway. Among these men were some of the 22,000 Australian soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II. In camps across Asia and the Pacific, they struggled, died, and survived with a little help from their mates.

The west coast of Tasmania has always held true to a distinct identity that endures to this day. It is based on geography and a history of isolation from the rest of the island. The mountain ranges running down the west of Tasmania are a natural barrier to the more populated eastern regions of the island and flourished through exporting lumber and valuable minerals. Despite this, no roads existed to the east coast until 1932.

Inside Cardboard Box 39 at the South Australian Museum’s storage facility lies the forgotten skull of an Aboriginal man who died 85 years before. His misspelled name is etched on the crown, but the many bones in boxes around him remain unidentified. Who was Yokununna, and how did he die? His story reveals the layered, exploitative White Australian mindset that has long rendered Aboriginal reality all but invisible.

Wearing the colour red and having the patch with the emblem of the mighty bulldog on your back was what ex-Mongrel Mob leader Tuhoe 'Bruno' Isaac called being True Red. "Because all levels of society hated us we created a new society of hatred symbolised by the bulldog. Its ferocious habits were engraved on our hearts", Tuhoe says, "If you weren't a mobster you weren't worth knowing." He lived this way for 17 years. However, constantly living for the bash, beer, prison and the possibility of dying in a pool of blood eventually saw Tuhoe search for another way of doing life.

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.

Criminality, some say, is part of Australia's national identity, and in Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags Jim Haynes profiles 15 larger-than-life Aussie rogues. These stories uncover the truth and expose the myths about characters ranging from the most despicable examples of humanity, to those whose courage has to be admired and whose so-called 'crimes' were unjustly punished. Told with Haynes's inimitable combination of history and humour, Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags is packed with murders, mystery and miscreants.

How much do you know about Australia? Whether you have lived there all your life or have simply thought about visiting one day, you’ll be fascinated to learn all about the land where Christmas means baking-hot sun and a barbeque on the beach! In this fascinating audiobook, narrator Charles King takes us on a journey ‘Down Under’, revealing over 100 amazing facts about Australia, from interesting information about the country’s history, landmarks and wildlife to its best-known citizens and much more.

The British Colonization of New Zealand: The History of New Zealand from Settlement to Dominion analyzes the expeditions that discovered New Zealand and the early settlements and conflicts waged there from 1650 to 1850. You will learn about the European settlement of New Zealand like never before.

País que comprende un grupo de islas perteneciente al archipiélago de la Polinesia al sur del Pacífico, es un maravilloso ensueño de clima tropical de casi 200,000 habitantes con arena blanca y aguas azules que cada año reporta miles de turistas.

Há poucas fronteiras ainda não exploradas em nosso planeta. Talvez a mais selvagem, e quase desconhecida, sejam os oceanos: grandes demais para serem policiados e sem jurisdição internacional evidente, essas imensas regiões de águas traiçoeiras abrigam índices galopantes de criminalidade e exploração.

On the First Fleet of 1788, at least 15 convicts were of African descent. By 1840 the number had risen to almost 500. Among them were David Stuurman, a revered South African chief transported for anti-colonial insurrection; John Caesar, who became Australia’s first bushranger; Billy Blue, the stylishly dressed ferryman who gave his name to Sydney’s Blues Point; and William Cuffay, a prominent London Chartist who led the development of Australia’s labour movement. Two of the youngest were cousins from Mauritius—girls aged just 9 and 12—sentenced over a failed attempt to poison their mistress.

The accounts in the contents of my father’s diaries expose the raw truth about the sacrifices, trauma, and the intense drive that drove our soldiers to fight and to win World War II. My father realized our God-given freedoms were being threatened and in harm’s way. I’ve heard him say: “There was a mission at hand and any sacrifices I made were all worth the fight to save this country from all the evil that was trying to overtake us.” He was also very explicit about how he felt toward those enemies. Some excerpts and entries in his diaries and letters are not politically correct. I...

Michael Fomenko is familiar with adversity. But when he gets shut out of the Commonwealth Games for financial and political reasons at the ripe age of 20, he questions everything. Setting a new course for himself, he dreams of a feat that will require unimaginable determination. With no companions or guides, he will paddle a dugout canoe over 1,000 nautical kilometers from Cairns, Australia, to Dutch, New Guinea.

James Cook gilt als bedeutendster Entdecker nach Kolumbus. Freilich: Ohne Tupaia, Maheine und Mai wären seine Reisen unmöglich gewesen. Sie führten Cook in die Welt der Südsee ein, bewahrten seine Schiffe vor gefährlichen Korallenriffen und ersparten es ihm, in Neuseeland von den Maori als Eindringling massakriert zu werden.