Hesperian Press

Westralia Gift Book

The Westralian Goldfields

by Burton S. James

ISBN 978-085905-536-9, (1897, 2012 reset), 27pp, 65 gms

$16.50* + POST

An 1890s overview of the goldfields which concisely lays out the most advanced views of the time on the occurrence of gold for prospectors. Many apply today.

Westward, the Course of Empire. Western Australia.

by Gilbert Parker.

ISBN 978-0-85905-921-3, [1890 R 2022], A4, 44 pages, 150 grams, $22.00*

A sometimes scathing but honest overview of the West before its fortunes changed with the discovery of gold. How we were in our bucolic isolation. A century later we are the economic powerhouse of the nation.

Whaleback Tales

by Peter Eckhart

ISBN 0 85905 230 3, (1996 New), Soft Cover, 119pp, illustrated, 160grams

$22.00 + POST

Dr Peter Eckhart was appointed to the staff of Mt Newman Mining Company in 1968 while the mine was still under construction.  He took the job for two years and remained for nineteen years.

During his time there he saw many changes.  The town changed from a virtual construction site with a few demountable houses to a substantial town with three suburbs, two primary schools, a senior high school, and the largest kindergarten in the State.  The population increased from a modest 700 mainly construction workers to a settled 7500 persons in modern housing.

The hospital facilities started as a three bedroom house and became a well-constructed 29 bed fully equipped hospital with a well qualified staff.

In 1987 he left to semi-retire as a part time locum practicing in country areas.

What Happened at Braeside

by WC Charnley

ISBN 978-0-85905-034-0,(2010, R), 25 pp, illust, SC, B5,50grams

$10.00* + POST

In 1899 Braeside Station was the 'furthest out' in the Eastern Pilbara. A vicious native night attack resulted in the

death of Doctor Edward Vines and the spearing of Herbert Hodgson. A heavily pregnant Isabella Hodgson single

handedly fought off the murderers. Her now little known action, was an inspiration for generations of pioneers.

What the hell was that? A conservation biologist’s journey in Australia & Asia.

Darrell Kitchener.

ISBN 978-0-85905-899-5, (2021), A4, French flaps, illustrated, 205 pages, 600 grams, $55.00*

Raised in a wild Tasmanian timber town, this book traces the authors experiences as a biologist in Tasmania, Western Australia, and Asia. It provides examples of the constant wrestle between conservationists and resource developers in these regions. He spent his last 30 years working on a variety of projects, including conservation of Sumatran Orangutan, Javanese Rhinoceros, national parks, forests and watersheds in a many Indonesian landscapes. He built a heritage hotel beneath a smoking volcano in Java and published on Javanese painters and ancient trade ceramics found beneath the Musi River in Sumatra.

 The first part, highlights stories of modern exploration on those islands visited by Alfred Wallace in southern Indonesia at the interface of the Australian and Indomalayan Biogeographic realms, and in the Western Australian Wheatbelt and Kimberley Regions. The second part provides readers insights on the effectiveness of work done by international NGOs in Indonesia and the nature of the enabling environment for expatriate conservationists. 

Whatever happened to Kangaroo Kate?

David Carnegie at Halls Creek

Moondyne Joe, his early life

 by Peter J. Bridge with Gail Dreezens and Drew Deveraux

ISBN 0 85905 416 0, (2007 New, e-published 2006, in the Dollypot, Greenhide and Spindrift column Vol 1 No 5) Soft Cover A4, 15pp, saddle, 90grams

$11.00* + POST

Kangaroo Kate and her namesakes intrigued bush people for many years. She disappeared in 1930. A letter from Carnegie to Forrest from halls Creek in 1897. The real facts on Moondyne Joe’s origins and early life.

Wheel Tracks

by W.W. Ammon

ISBN 0 85905 190 0, (1993 reprint of 1966 edition), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 144pp, illustrated, 190grams

$22.00 + POST

Wheel Tracks .... over the red sandhill, across the boggy claypans, into flooded rivers, cutting their lonely path through kilometres of wildflowers or desert blasted by the heat ... in the country of the wild turkey and the giant lizards, where a mob of kangaroos can be so big that it takes an hour to pass by; where Tom Davies perished of thirst, and Micky Brown rode the outlaw mule ... the land of Terrible Bill Cridlen, Gus the Swede, Brumby Pete, and the celebrated Musical Bogger.

Wheeltracks INDEX $10

When Fortune Smiled and Other Tales of the Goldfields

by John Drayton. Prepared by Peter J Bridge, Angela Teague and Rina Ashcroft

ISBN 978-0-85905-563-5, (2014), Soft cover, A4, indexed, 136pp, 390g

$30.00* + POST

Contains 65 WA true tales of the goldfields, such as, The rush to Cow Camel, When thieves fall out, Rifles and axes for two, The lost show at Gregory Hills, Skull Creeks bloody baptism, and The patch at Double Cross.

When Nuns Wore Soldier's Trousers

by Pat Studdy-Clift

ISBN 978 0 85905 469 0, (2009 new), Soft Cover, Saddle Stitched, 59 pages, illustrated, 90grams

$16.50 + POST

During the murderous Japanese campaign in New Guinea missionaries of all denominations were killed and their flocks dispersed. This is the story of a small group of German Catholic Sisters of the Divine Word Mission at Marienberg on the north coast, near the lower Sepik.

Where Fortunes Lay

A Personal Story of the Birth of Kalgoorlie

by A.J. Macgeorge (edited by Michael Macgeorge)

ISBN 0 85905 194-3, (1993 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 186 pp, illustrated, 250grams,

$22.00 + POST

Where Fortunes Lay is the personal, first hand story of an adventurous young mans search for fortune in the vast dry interior of Australia in the 1890s.

Where is Brown Hill?

by Amy Moore

ISBN 0 85905 128 5, (1989 new), Soft Cover, 60pp, 115grams

$16.50 + POST

Brown Hill was a small mining community t’other side of Kalgoorlie.  Now covered with mullock heaps of the new open cuts, this township and its people are recorded by Amy Moore, born and bred in this forgotten goldfield’s village.

Where on the Coast is That?

 by Ian Murray with Marion Hercock

ISBN 978-0-85905-452-2, (2008 new), Soft Cover, 350 pp, 910 grams

$50.00* + POST

Contains the names, location, origin, namer, and description of **** coastal place names of Western Australia. "Owing to the geographical location of Western Australia at the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean, its coastal features have more than the expected Aboriginal and English place names. This is because the first European names were bestowed by Dutch navigators in the 1600s, then by English and French navigators before settlement by the English in the 1820s. The place names applied speak volumes about the motives of navigators in selecting names.

Where There's Smoke There's Fry

The true story of an amazing man - Alf Fry

by Chris Hales

ISBN 0 85905 259 1, (1999 new), Soft Cover, 196pp, illustrated, 270grams

$22.00 + POST

From the battlefields of Gallipoli to the Karri Country of the South West of Western Australia, Alfred Narroway Fry lived a remarkable life. So remarkable the reader will conclude that he had more lives than a cat.

White blacks and black whites

edited by P.J. Bridge A. Teague & G. Dreezens

ISBN 0 85905 436 5, (2008 new), A4, Soft Cover, 34pp, illustrated, 130grams

$22.00* + POST

From the 1830s to the 1890s many strange stories about whites amongst the blacks came in from the frontiers. Albinos, lost explorers or shipwreck survivors? This intriguing collection is from Western Australia.

White Feather

The Story of Kanowna

by Margaret Bull

ISBN 0 85905 111 0, (1987 reprint of 1981 edition with new material), 145mm x 210mm, Soft Cover, 111 pp, 180grams

$22.00 + POST

White Feather is the story of the old goldfield town of Kanowna, from the time gold was found by Jerry McAuliffe in October 1895 through to the 1980s.

Kanowna, originally known as White Feather, was in its heyday one of the richest goldfields in Western Australia outside the famous Kalgoorlie-Boulder golden mile.

White Feather is a social history concerned with the discovery of gold and the early years on the find, life and conditions at Kanowna during its rapid growth, the steady decline of the field after the end of the 1890s, and some of the more important figures involved in the town's history.

Wilgie Mia

Cave of Red Ochre and Raddled Ranters

By Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-702-8, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, indexed, 100+ pages, ** grams

$30.00* + POST

A history of the discovery of the cave, early mining, and the industry that grew around it. Also an examination of the Wadgela myths of the sacred cave, which are less believable than those of the Aboriginal dreamtime. Wishful thinking guides government policy resulting in closure and restriction as the home for a red elephant.

William Benstead. Pioneer of Alice Springs and Coolgardie

by William Benstead with Peter J. Bridge and Ian Murray. 

ISBN 978-0-85905-764-6, (New, 2019), A4, illustrated, indexed, 69 pages, 200 grams, $25.00*

Bill Benstead, Cattleman, hotelier, explorer, butcher. Anna’s Reservoir & Coolgardie. His cattle interests were in Africa, Madagascar, Argentina, working for Vestys. His daughter Lulu was a very well known singer on the London stage.

William Campbell Charnley, 1882-1966

A bibliography

Compiled by Peter J Bridge.

[ISBN 978-0-85905-227-6], (2011, New), 20pp, illust, 50grams

$10.00* + POST

Charnley was a prolific writer, from 1915 to 1966, primarily on Western Australian history, publishing “close to a million words” by 1951 in magazines and newspapers. In Australia these were The Bulletin, The Lone Hand, The Australian Journal, The Western Mail, The Countryman, The Western Mail, Famous Detective Stories, and the Australian Life. Overseas were the Wide World, Blackwood’s, History Today, and The Windsor Magazine. He wrote on subjects where he was close to those involved in incidents of bush history and so has a viewpoint that is not accessible to those who are solely working from archives, or are literary creationists.