Australian History

Australian History For Dummies is your rough-and-ready tour guide through Australia's whirlwind past. We'll introduce you to the people and events that have shaped this "Land Down Under" (and why it's called that). You'll see how Indigenous Australians lived in Australia for over 65,000 years. You'll be there as British colonists explore Australia's harsh terrain. You'll delve into the recent past, giving you insight into modern-day Australia and what's next. This new edition fills in the last ten years of history and covers issues faced in the twenty-first century.

With all the skills of the master storyteller that he is, Jim Haynes exposes some of the great myths of Australian history. Did you know that Portuguese and Spanish explorers probably found the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook, and that the Rum Rebellion was not caused by rum? And...

Always Greener is an exquisite portrait of Kate Grenville's complex, conflicted grandmother, who she feared as a child and only in adulthood came to understand. Born in rural Australia, Dolly Russell becomes a successful businessperson, mother and troubled wife. Then came the depression, bankruptcy and World War I. Yet, in a way, those disasters freed her. They allowed her to use her intelligence and ambition to make a space for herself in a man’s world.

No man or woman has won more Grand Slam singles titles than Novak Djokovic, who took his 24th major at the 2023 US Open. Based on fresh interviews with people close to Djokovic - including his friends and mentors, along with his former coaches and his rivals - this is an in-depth exploration of the psyche of one of the most fascinating and controversial sporting characters ever. 

Comedian Ben Pobjie traverses the history of Australian larrikins, how the meaning of larrikin has changed and what it forgives. There is no higher praise in Australian life than to be called a larrikin. All our greatest cultural icons, from Shane Warne to Steve Irwin to Scott Cam to Dawn Fraser...

Rowland Sinclair is an artist and a gentleman. In Australia’s 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet Rowland has a talent for scandal. He relies on the Sinclair fortune to indulge his artistic passions and friends; a poet, a painter and a brazen sculptress. Mounting...

Dive into the dramatic sports history of how fierce colonial pastimes evolved into an energetic national obsession. Perfect for an immersive morning commute, this nostalgic journey explores the deep Indigenous and cultural roots of Australian rules football. Whether you are enjoying a relaxing...

The incredible true story of one of the most extraordinary and inspirational prison breaks in Australian history. New York, 1874. Members of the Clan-na-Gael - agitators for Irish freedom from the English yoke - hatch a daring plan to free six Irish political prisoners from the most remote...

One of Library Journal’s 10 Best Books of 2015 Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this...

From one of Australia's leading historians, the compelling story of a singular nation still realizing its independence and influence on the global stage As a land associated with extremes—from remote desert terrain to some of the world's deadliest creatures—few countries feel as...

WINNER OF THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR BEST TRUE CRIME 2023 WINNER OF THE UK TRUE CRIME AWARD FOR BEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 2024 A relentlessly fascinating and often jaw-dropping true story of two American women who unwittingly became Australia's 'Drug Grannies' In 1977, Vera 'Toddie' Hays and...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. The ground gives little, and gives it on no schedule. Australia is the oldest, flattest and most weathered large landmass on earth. It sits in the middle of its tectonic plate: no collision zone, no young mountains, no glaciation, no volcanic renewal...

Deep understanding comes from history, and who writes history, controls the future! "Regardless of a man's age or experience, "to be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always as a child" Marcus Tullius Cicero - Roman Senator 1st Century BC Cognitive Dissonance "Sometimes...

"As impeccably crafted as a Dior gown and as seductive as the scent of Guerlain’s Shalimar, this is pure reading bliss." — Library Journal Set against the backdrop of mid-century Parisian glamour and the timeless art of perfumery, a captivating tale of resilience, love, and the intoxicating...

Political Wisdom is a rare collection of candid conversations with six former Australian prime ministers–Sir John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Tony Abbott, and Malcolm Turnbull–by Brett Kelly, the founder and CEO of the global accounting network Kelly+Partners. Conducted over nearly three decades, these revealing interviews offer listeners the opportunity to hear directly from the men who led Australia through periods of political, economic and social change.

'The sun did not know how beautiful its light was until it was reflected off this building.' - Louis Kahn, US architect If only these walls and this land could talk ... The Sydney Opera House is a breathtaking building, recognised around the world as a symbol of modern Australia. Along with the...

The second epic installment of the Obsidian Throne trilogy, an epic fantasy of betrayal, memory, and the fight for an empire, in which a prince and a witch must find a way to burn the world to the ground in order to raise it up out of the ashes. An empress with vengeance in her heart Prince...

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain comes the story of an Irish-Chinese family over four generations in Australia. ‘They said you were a murdering bushranger.’ It’s the winter of 2049 and Daniel is elderly and long isolated. Soon after yet another...

The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller. In 1823, cockney sailor and chancer James Porter was convicted of stealing a stack of beaver furs and transported halfway around the world to Van Diemen's Land, before being sent to Sarah Island. Many had tried to escape Sarah Island; few had succeeded. But when Governor George Arthur announced that the place would be closed and its prisoners moved to the new penal station of Port Arthur, Porter, along with a motley crew of other prisoners, pulled off an audacious escape.

Established after World War I by the Royal Australian Navy, the Coast Watchers were a loose organisation of several hundred European settlers, missionaries, patrol officers and planters living in British and Australian Pacific Island territories whose job it was to observe and report on the...