Showing results by narrator "David Tredinnick" in All Categories

Birdsville is one of the most remote police postings in Australia. It can be lonely and uneventful for weeks, then the dramas come thick and fast: from desert rescues to rising floods, venomous vipers to visiting VIPs. Throw in heat, dust and flies and it's not a job for the faint-hearted, unless you're Senior Constable Neale McShane, who has single-handedly taken care of a beat the size of Victoria for the past 10 years. Recently retired, Neale and his family thrived on the adventures and colourful times.

It's hard to imagine this story as being part of our past, but in 1942, an 11-year-old Australian boy, Richard Manson, and his parents either side of him were shot by the Japanese for suspected spying in Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. Acclaimed Fourth Estate author and award-winning science journalist Ian Townsend has uncovered a fascinating story of World War Two, little known to most Australians.

Scottish-born but a Queenslander to the bone, Jock McLaren was a true Australian hero. As a prisoner, he escaped twice, first from Changi and later from the infamous Sandakan POW camp in Borneo. After paddling a dugout canoe across open sea, he fought for two years with American-led Filipino guerrillas, his exploits so audacious the Japanese put a price on his head.

Watsonia gathers the fruits of a writing life. It covers everything from Australian humour to America gone berserk; from Don Bradman to Oscar Wilde; from birds and horses to history and politics. Wherever Don Watson turns his incisive gaze, the results are as illuminating as they are enjoyable. Watsonia displays the many sides of Don Watson: historian, speechwriter, social critic, humourist, biographer and lover of nature and sports.

Do you believe in love? Do you trust your partner? Nick Souter did, with good reason - he and Anne had something special. He didn't make a habit of going through her pockets but what's a man supposed to do when he's got a rotten cold and a wife who helps herself to his handkerchiefs? You can't blow your nose on an adulterous love-note but it certainly took Nick's mind off his sniffles. Secrets and lies can turn doubt into obsession and a loving couple into snarling adversaries. Secrets and lies can kill.

Eight years after passing the audition for TV's ‘Money Quest' quiz show, Paul Hetherby is still waiting for the call to appear on the program. Devoid of any life skills other than avoiding responsibility and memorising useless facts, Paul's obsession with becoming Australia's next quiz-master is rivalled only by a tragic devotion to his latest disorderly and not very successful rock band, Explosive Hits. Which leaves his long-suffering girlfriend a distant third.

Wangira is caught between the traditions of his Kikuyu tribe and the disturbing new ideas of the missionaries. When, as a young warrior, he saves the life of a wealthy American photographer, he is offered the chance of a new life far away in the white man's world. Between the wars, Kenya is a land of boundless opportunity where the rich engage in hunting safaris, horse racing, outrageous parties, and all the pleasures that money can buy.

After a men's room confrontation with his new boss right-hand man, Maori cop Tito Ihaka has been sent into exile. And yet, out of the blue McGrail summons him back to Auckland. Christopher Lilywhite, the businesswoman s terminally ill husband whom Ihaka suspected was behind his wife's death, wants to see him. Lilywhite confesses that he had his wife murdered, but he dealt with the hit-man at arm's length so has no idea who he is. In quick succession Lilywhite and another potential source of information are murdered.

Tall tales, all true, about guns, bombs, car chases, spiders, exotic locales, men in uniform, and dancing girls - with deadpan delivery and a social conscience. "I remember the advertisement to join the Army. It asked for guys who were fit, committed, tough, volunteer parachutists, comfortable in the ocean, and mature. As a surfer, that sounded like me - except for the mature bit."

Quirky and neurotic, Gordon B. Shoesmith is a 30-something jazz musician seeing his twelfth psychiatrist in as many years. He increasingly discovers that there is a conflict between his artist's idealism and the hard reality of life, fuelled by his ambitious journalist girlfriend, Jenny, and her disapproving parents. Gordon finds himself on an improvised, medicated roller-coaster ride of self-discovery....

After a disastrous affair, Jack Morgan is at an emotional crossroads. When he's offered a UN posting in Kenya he grabs it, believing time spent on foreign soil will help him forget and move on. But Africa is a land of danger, adventure and temptation, and within weeks of arriving Jack is seduced - by the spectacular Serengeti National Park, the rich Kenyan culture, and a beautiful Maasai woman named Malaika.

John Punter, professional gambler and amateur private investigator, has seen his fair share of crime and shady dealings, both on the race track and off it. So when the daughter of a bookmaker friend is abducted, following hot on the heels of a gruesome murder after an abduction-gone-wrong, Punter's offer of help is gladly accepted.

In McGahan's prequel to his best-selling debut, Praise, Gordon, failed writer and bottleshop boy, feels his life is going nowhere and heads north with Wayne in search of their rightful place in the culture of a nation. It's the Bicentennial year, and for Gordon it seems his life is going nowhere. It's time to escape. From his overcrowded house, from Brisbane, from Expo 88, from everything.

On an unnamed island, in a Gothic hospital sitting in the shadow of a volcano, a wordless orphan girl works on the wards housing the insane and the incapable. When a silent, unmoving and unnerving new patient - a foreigner - arrives at the hospital, strange phenomena occur, bizarre murders take place and the lives of the patients and the island's inhabitants are thrown into turmoil. What happens between them is an extraordinary exploration of consciousness, reality and madness.

Lee Kernaghan has created his place in the history books of Australian Music and continues to grow his audience with every new album. Two thousand sixteen will see the release of yet another new album, and 2017 will be a special year that will feature the 25th Anniversary Tour of Australia's Boy From the Bush. For the first time, Lee steps off the stage and invites you behind the scenes, into the ute and over the rutted red dirt on a rollocking journey through his songs and the stories that inspired them.

Ford laid his fingertips gently on the cut in his shoulder where the bullet had clipped him. His best chance would be to hitch a ride south at the first opportunity, before the police started looking for him. He was alone, enveloped in the monstrous silence of the desert. Free and alone, without assistance and without excuse. Left for dead in the desert, framed as the inside man in a bullion robbery at the remote mine site where he works, and fearing that his daughter and ex-wife have been abducted from their home in Perth, Ford must cross a thousand miles of wilderness to find his family.

At the dawn of the 20th century, young Dan Sullivan signs on to fight the Boers, but discovers war has horrors beyond the battle fields. In East Africa, a railway crosses a land with an unimaginable throng of wild animals. It is the golden age of the white hunter - men whose exciting lives entice rich hunters to go in search of big, dangerous game. After many failed attempts, old Bill Freeman sees his chance to make his fortune as a hunter and convinces Dan to join his fledgling safari company.

Sandy Thorne launched the first bestseller I've Met Some Bloody Wags!: By Biting the Top Off a Stubbie of Beer on the Midday Show, and has spent over 20 years travelling the world spinning bush yarns and humour. Battler gets a vacation when his missus wins a holiday on the Gold Coast. The kids have never seen the sea and Battler has never seen the brief-as-brief bikinis…they're all just about to go completely woomba! Please note: Battler O'Brien is no softie.

Sandy Thorne launched the first bestseller I've Met Some Bloody Wags!: By Biting the Top Off a Stubbie of Beer on the Midday Show, and has spent over 20 years travelling the world spinning bush yarns and humour. The irrepressible larrikin bushie and his wild and woolly brood move onto their 50,000 acre "block" way out in the back country. The result is chaos, calamity, colossal cock-ups…and a good chuckle or three every minute.

Sandy Thorne launched the first bestseller I've Met Some Bloody Wags! By Biting the Top Off a Stubbie of Beer on the Midday Show, and has spent over 20 years travelling the world spinning bush yarns and humour. Battler O'Brien has been a battler all his life - riding the rodeo circuit and droving sheep with his missus on the far west stock route to survive. But Battler sees that the only chance for his family lies with the "Bundaroo" land ballot. He's prepared to do almost anything to win...