PLEASE NOTE: Any book title starting with "The" - the second word of the title is used to list by.
Forlorn Hope.
JMR Cameron.
ISBN 978-1-875778-59-1, (New, 2025), 160x240, French flap SC, 148 pages, well illustrated, maps, 430 grams, $55.00*
On 7 May 1865 seven men set out to sail from Escape Cliffs in South Australia’s Northern Territory to Camden Harbour on the Kimberley coastline of Western Australia in a seven meter open boat which they named Forlorn Hope. Acutely disappointed with the progress at Escape Cliffs and outspokenly critical of its commandant, they were desperate to find a ship that could take them home to Adelaide. But Camden Harbour, a Victorian settlement, was on the point of collapse and they were forced to sail on until they reached Champion Bay (Geraldton) on the west coast 63 days and approximately 2600 miles (4200 km) after they set out. This is the story of the Forlorn Hope which was told in graphic detail at the time by its leader, Jefferson Pickman Stow.
This edition of Stow’s epic journal follows closely his account in the South Australian Advertiser but has been annotated for modern readers with the provision of historical and other background. His extensive and at times quite damning criticisms of Escape Cliffs and its commandant Colonel Boyle Travers Finniss have also been included. [NT][TRAN][BIO]
The Great Work.
Andrew Crouch.
ISBN 978-1-875778-74-4, (New, 2025), 160x240, French flap SC, 167 pages, well illustrated, maps, 480 grams, $60.00*
With only John McDouall Stuart’s exploration journal to guide and underpin its crazy-brave endeavour, the South Australian Government staked its political survival on a plan to carry a line of telegraph overland across the continent, to connect Australia to the World.
Despite significant challenges, the northbound Overland Telegraph construction parties made steady progress from Port Augusta, reaching the Centre of Australia after eight months ‘on the road’.
Their counterparts building south from Port Darwin were under-equipped, short of supplies, and largely out of touch with the outside world. Confronted in turn by flooded rivers and an inflexible Government inspector, their expedition nearly collapsed. A year on, after two successive waves of reinforcements and months waiting for the monsoon waters to subside, they got under way again.
Aboriginal people who watched and sometimes resisted the encroachment on their lands and livelihoods were greatly outmatched in weaponry and could only hope to counter by stealing items that might be of use to them.
Meanwhile, the completion deadline had passed, and great commercial pressure was being applied by the British cable magnates. Then suddenly the tables were turned when their underwater cable broke down near Java.
And two months later in August 1872, the ‘fragile line of matchsticks’ was finally completed, linking coast to coast across the continent.
This is the true story as chronicled by the people who together created the Overland Telegraph Line. Drawing on his own careful transcriptions, author Andrew Crouch blends the protagonists’ handwritten accounts to trace the genesis, the day-to-day progress and the eventual triumph of The Great Work from beginning to end. [NT][BIO][EX]
Rivers of Rubies. The history of the Ruby Rush in Central Australia.
Barry M. Allwright.
ISBN 978-0-85905-997-8, (New, 2025), 160x240, French flap SC, 266 pages, Illustrated colour, folded map, 710 grams, $75.00*
The great ruby rush of the 1880s brought in hundreds of hopefuls who opened up desert country but collapsed when the gem markets dashed the prospectors hopes. The rubies were garnets. However the great influx led to further prospecting in the area and an interest in the ‘dead heart.’ [NT] [MIN] [BIO]