Hesperian Press

The Mount Minnie Mystery

&

A Midnight Melee

Edited by Peter J Bridge with Gail Dreezens

 ISBN 978-0-85905-425-6, (2008 New), Soft Cover, 36 pages, A4, 125grams

$22.00* + POST

The Mount Minnie Mystery. In late 1925 Moorish horse dealer, Alexander Hughes, and his aboriginal assistant, Sailor, disappeared from Mount Minnie Station near Onslow in the North West of Western Australia. What followed in the police investigation stunned the normally unflappable Nor’westers. The investigation by Detective O’Brien was a masterpiece of police work in an environment not conducive to such careful forensic analysis.

A Midnight Melee. In 1920 a well-known Nor’ Wester, Charles Athelstone Park, was arrested for the murder of Big Bob, an aboriginal drover. The investigation covered territory from the Kimberley to the Upper Gascoyne. The trial, its revelations, and its aftermath brought the reality of dangerous bush life to the city dwellers, and was a harbinger of the current situation where more city people are attacked and murdered by “aboriginals” than they were in the goldrush days of the 1890s.  

Mountain View Gold - Day Dawn

&
The Italians who made it Happen

by Alex Palmer

ISBN 978-0-85905-514-7, (2012N), illust., 125pp, 240g'

$25.00 + POST

A new day dawned for Day Dawn WA, following a rich strike at Mountain View.

A group of Italian prospectors at Day Dawn in the 1940s, down to their uppers, defying the advice of experts, persevered for four years before they finally struck it rich.

Moving Mountains

The Evolution of Port Hedland Harbour

by Murray Shaw

ISBN 0 85905 389 X, (2007 new), Soft Cover, A4, 98pp, Illustrated in colour, 285grams

$30* + POST

Contains 21 colour and 24 black and white illustrations.

Port Hedland is the biggest tonnage port in Australia. This is its story!

"Mum’s Grey Hair"

by Rod Dickson

ISBN 978-0-85905-584-0, (2014), A4, 198pp, illustrated, 555grams

$40.00* + POST

Rod Dickson’s idiosyncratic memoirs cover his early childhood in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, his years at Tyler St. Primary and Reservoir and Northcote High Schools and after leaving the hallowed halls of learning pursued a 51 year career at sea. On all types of vessels ranging from a crayfishing boat to tugs, oil rig tenders, cargo ships, tankers to finally a 128,000 ton L.N.G. Tanker from which he retired. The title of this autobiography comes from his mother’s favourite saying - "Rodney you gave me all my Grey Hairs."

Mungilli : Poor Little Fella

by Maureen Herbert

ISBN 978-0-85905-588-8, (2014, new), Softcover, A4, well illustrated - some colour, 111pp, 325g

$30.00* + POST

Maureen and Trevor Herbert, on a desert expedition with Dr Bill Peasley, found a half starved desert dingo and he adopted them.

This is the story of their times together, enlightened by the correspondence of Mungilli and Dr Bill.

A good read for those interested in desert travel, wildlife, and people.

The Murchison in 1887

William Frear Forster & Frank Wittenoom

ISBN 978-0-85905-716-5, (New, 2018), A4, Indexed, 57 pp, 170 grams

$30.00* + POST

The newly created stations in the Upper Murchison became a byword for enterprise and have remained important pastoral properties to the present. A visit by a group of government officials and business people recorded much that was otherwise lost.

Murder at Maylands

Executed under an alias

W.C. Charnley & Peter J. Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-670-0, (New, 2017), 22 pages, illustrated, A4, 70 grams

$15.00* + POST

For 90 years the true identity and fate of a murderer has been hidden.

Murder on the Rabbit Proof Fence

The Strange Case of Arthur Upfield and Snowy Rowles

by Terry Walker

ISBN 0 85905 189 7, (1993 new), 140mm x 215mm, Soft Cover, 152pp, illustrated, 210grams

$25.00 + POST

It was a murder mystery writer's worst nightmare come true.  In 1929 Arthur Upfield, Australia's premier crime writer, plotted a perfect murder for his novel The Sands of Windee.

To his horror, one of his friends, Snowy Rowles, put the scheme into deadly effect even before the book was published.  The result was Western Australia's most sensational murder trials of the 1930s.

My Fourth Tour in W.A.

by A.F. Calvert

ISBN 0 85905 033 5, (1989 reprint of 1897 edition), Hard Cover, quarto, 400pp, illustrated, 1.6kg

$95.00* + POST

One of the most magnificent books on the Western Australian goldfields and the bush.  Contains hundreds of photographs and sketches of people and places.

My Life Story

by F.W. Bow

ISBN 978-0-85905-533-8, (1954, 2012), A4, 44 pp, illust., 150 grams

$16.50* + POST

Fred Bow was an 1890s prospector who built the Kununalling pub, farmed at Coolgardie, and a pioneer of Esperance.

My Natives and I

by Daisy Bates (edited by Peter J. Bridge with an introduction by Bob Reece of Murdoch University)

ISBN 085905 313 X, (2004 new), 292 pp illustrated, 216mm x 140 mm, section sewn, limp cover, 390grams

$35.00 + POST

"There is in the life of Daisy Bates something of the spirit of service that moved Florence Nightingale, and something of the spirit of sacrifice that filled the heart of Father Damien.

The Murchison Revisited

by FCB Vosper. Edited by Peter J. Bridge and Gail Dreezens

ISBN 978-0-85905-746-2, (R 2019), A4, 78 pages, indexed, 210 grams,

$35.00*

The mining journalist and politician wrote of the changes to the Murchison and its mines in 1895, several years after his first experiences there. Interesting comment on the people, mines and institutions of the wider Murchison goldfield.

The Mystery of the Mayanup Poltergeist

by Helen Hack

ISBN 085905 268 0, (2000 new), Soft Cover, laminated, 92pp, illustrated, 150grams

$22.00 + POST

In the south west of Western Australia during the 1950s a series of mysterious incidents intrigued the nation.

Stones and other objects were thrown about or appeared inside closed rooms and in various other ways showed scant regard for the laws of physics.  The centre of attention was a part-Aboriginal family of farm workers.