Hesperian Press

Toodyay Homesteads

by Rica Erickson and Robyn Taylor

ISBN 0 85905 362 8, (2006 New), Soft Cover, 196 pages, 260grams

$30.00 + POST

Toodyay Homesteads, Past and Present is an invaluable book for anyone interested in Western Australia's rural heritage. It describes the evolution of the Toodyay District and the farming properties that have operated since the 1830s and 1840s. The book takes the reader on a journey from Morby Cottage in Northam to the Berkshire Valley homestead in Moora. Individual chapters reveal the social, administrative, and economic forces that shaped the early development of the Swan River colony, while the homesteads provide insights into the use of local materials, and construction and farming methods up to the present day. Solid archival research by Rica Erickson is given life through her own experiences and early conversations with original settlers and their descendants.

Top Camp, Soldiers Secret
and the Ashburton Gold Rush

by Peter J Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-601-4, (New, 2015), A4, 222 pages, Illustrated, Indexed, 590 grams.

$50.00* + POST

The history of the Ashburton Gold Rush of 1890 with details of the pastoral stations, aboriginal conflict, lonely deaths, and all the adventures of the distant bush. This is a companion volume to the earlier, Bangemall.

The Top of the Hill

Ed by PJ Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-608-3, (2015, R 1930s), A4, 110 pages, 315 grams

$30.00* + POST

The letters to The Western Mail in the late 1930s cover reminiscences and observations of bush life by men and women, farmers, drovers, sailors, fishermen and represent the land as it once was before the influx of aliens changed our life. Essential reading to grasp how the nation has changed and why so many are unhappy with the current trends.

Touch Me Not

by Pat Studdy-Clift

ISBN 978-0-85905-654-0, (New, 2017), A4, 86 pages, well illustrated, 255 grams.

$30.00* + POST

This is an historical novel, based on fact and brimful of the adventures, trials and triumphs of one pioneering family – the Gadens. In 1923 with two small babies, aboard the lugger "Chantress", their adventurous father and his brave-hearted wife headed into the uncivilised part of Australia now known as Kakadu National Park, only to find themselves living in "bough sheds" at the mercy of tropical cyclones, buffalo bulls, fierce snakes and primeval crocodiles, to mention a few of their hazards.  Add to this a daughter Madge, who was not only a gifted pianist, but also a "darling".  She touched the hearts of many, world-wide, when leprosy struck both her and her father.  Top this with the inferno of World War Two as Madge, the mixed-race patients and their carers on Channel Island in Darwin Harbour faced the bombing of Darwin.  History leads us through a record of man's inhumanity, but also man's humanity to man.

The Trackmaster

Sig Schlam

by Bill Elkes

ISBN 0 85905 112 9, (1987 new), Soft Cover, 29pp, illustrated, 100grams

$10.00* + POST

The biography of one of the World’s greatest speedway motorcycle riders.

Tragedy Track

The Story of the Granites

by F.E. Baume

ISBN 0 85905 199 4, (1994 reprint of 1933 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 143pp, illustrated, 200grams

$22.00 + POST

The story of C.T. Madigan's 1932 Geological Expedition to the Tanami Desert in search of gold and the rush that followed.

The Tragic Pearl

by WC Charnley

ISBN 978-0-85905-019-7, (2010, R), 28pp, illustrated, SC, B5, 50grams

$10.00* + POST

Some people regard pearls as unlucky. However that may be, an uncanny fatality certainly seemed to attend the big 'stone' that figures in this remarkable narrative. First found off the coast of North-West Australia, it was stolen within a few hours of its discovery and almost immediately stolen again. Thenceforth it passed rapidly from hand to hand until it was lost to view, but during its travels it brought death to at least four men who had never even set eyes on it! "The story is absolutely true," writes Mr. Charnley. "The case is well known in the annals of Australian crime, and I can furnish authority for every detail, even of the ultimate sale of the pearl in London. I have thought it advisable to suppress certain of the names."

Travels among Gold and Cannibals in Western Australia

1870 – 1874

by Thomas Scott

ISBN 978-0-85905-025-8, (2010 new), A4, 42pp, 150gram

$22.00*+ POST

Intriguing material from Western Australia’s first gold rush to Peterwangy.

This idiosyncratic travelogue written for the author’s friends describes a journey from Albany, overland to Perth and eventually to Northampton. While the descriptions of travel, places and people – from convicts to governors, are of some interest it is his repeated references to gold, at Kendenup, Dandalup, and Peterwangy, as well as notes on the natives, including his near nemesis King Johny or Errinnoo of Northampton area, that create the greatest interest.

The covers feature colour sketches of Errinnoo the cannibal chief and a birds-eye view of Northampton from the manuscript.

Travels and Adventures of Ben Bridge Throughout Western Australia and Northern Territory

by Ben Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-540-6, (2012, 1915?), A4, 94pp, illustrated, 285 grams

$30.00* + POST

An intriguing story of one of the great and almost forgotten characters of the Australian bush.

Ben Bridge was one of Australia’s greatest horsemen at a time when nearly all Australians were familiar with the finer points of horses and their riders.

Travels in Western Australia

by May Vivienne

ISBN 0 85905 192 7, (1993 reprint of 1901 edition), Soft Cover, 212pp, illustrated, 275grams

$30.00 + POST

Travels in Western Australia is a delightful account of May Vivienne's tour through the South-West and the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Written at a time when the Colony was astonishing the world with its riches, Travels continues to fascinate readers, showing a people with faith in their future and their new land.

Travels with a Lawbook

Memoirs of a Magistrate

by Ken ‘Lazarus’ Moore

ISBN 978 085 905 442 3, (2008 New), Soft cover, notch bound, A4, 384 pages, 1.1 kg

$50.00*+ POST

In this autobiography the author takes us on a roller-coaster journey from his birthplace in the Glens of Antrim to far distant places around the globe. Join him in the Royal Navy, where, like Nelson, he is sea-sick every day.

The Trenches in the Sky

by Dan Conway

ISBN 0 85905 205 2, (1995 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 248pp, illustrated, 400grams

$30.00 + POST

In The Trenches in the Sky Dan Conway covers the hazards arising from nature and enemy action, and the stratagems and tactics used by both sides during the air war of World War II.  He has kept rigidly to his aim to tell what it was really like flying in Bomber Command.

Dan's special concern is for the families who lost their loved ones with no word of their ultimate fate - just that horrible word "missing". He hopes that this account will give an understanding of the problems those gallant boys so resolutely faced.

Triumphs and Tragedies : Oombulgurri.

An Australian Aboriginal Community

by Neville Green

ISBN 978-0-85905-092-0, (New, 2011), 228pp, 160 x 240, illust., 530g

$35.00 + POST

Oombulgurri emerged from the remnants of Forrest River Mission to become one of the first independent Indigenous communities in Australia. During its 97 years its people have participated in events that captured national headlines; the search for the Southern Cross, the rescue of the crew of a German seaplane, reports of a massacre that sparked a Royal Commission, their service as guides to an elite military force preparing for the anticipated Japanese invasion of Australia and, in recent years, the community’s decline into poverty, depression and suicide. Sixty percent of the school children of 1967 are now dead. The missionaries and most of those they served are gone and so too is the lifestyle of that not so distant past, but in these pages we discover how church and government policies and failures shaped the present and the small achievements of Aboriginal people are soon lost in yet another wave of policies and practices that are presumed to be good for ‘them’.

Troy Weight

The 1889 report of Sub Inspector Troy on David Forrest's
allegations of mis-treatment of natives in the north

by Peter J Bridge, Peter Conole, Gail Dreezens

ISBN 978-0-85905-632-8, (New, 2016), A4, 93pp, 280 grams

$30.00* + POST

David Forrest of Minderoo complained of mistreatment of natives by pearlers. Governor Broome and his administration acted promptly and reports from local NW police were requested and a special police expedition set out covering an immense area.

Turning Men Into Stone

A social and medical history of silicosis in Western Australia 1890-1970

by Criena Fitzgerald

ISBN 978-0-85905-635-9, (New, 2016), 170 x 240, section sewn, 252pp, illustrated, indexed, 710 grams

$50.00 + POST

1960, WA physician Dr Bob Elphick remarked to his colleagues that the mining industry was turning men into stone. This evocative image aptly described the end-stage pathophysiological changes that occurred in the lungs of the state’s goldminers after exposure to silica dust. Until 1926 in WA, when X-ray technology became readily available and financially viable, diagnosis of dust disease in miners was fraught, flawed and at best an educated medical guess.

Twentieth Century Impressions of Western Australia

P.W.H. Thiel & Co., Perth, WA. 1901

ISBN 08905 269 9, (2000 reprint of 1901 edition), Hard Cover, 305mm x 245mm (A4+), 808pp, illustrated, 410grams

$250.00 + POST (The print run is 500 copies, available only from Hesperian Press)

This magnificent book is one of the most sought after reference works on nineteenth century Western Australia. It is an extremely rare book, and up until now it has been available only in a few selected libraries in a microfilm format.  Fair copies, if they can be found, sell for around $3,000.

Apart from its wealth of information, this book is lavishly illustrated with contemporary and historic photographs of people, places, buildings and industries. Of particular interest are the panoramas of the streets of Perth and Fremantle taken from high vantage points, and major industrial sites.