PLEASE NOTE: Any book title starting with "The" - the second word of the title is used to list by.
Chasing the Dragon's Tale - The Vergulde Draeck Story
by Bob Sheppard
ISBN 978-0-85905-723-3, (New, 2019), 160 x 240, heavily illustrated, indexed, 730 grams, $50.00*
The most comprehensive book ever written on the heritage, history and archaeology of the Vergulde Draeck (1656). Illustrated (with some never seen before photos) and containing around 700 references. The book is in two parts. Part One, The Vergulde Draeck Story, is a formal history of the wreck and its discovery. Part Two, Chasing The Dragon's Tale, covers the author's experiences in his 10 year search to unravel one of Australia's greatest maritime mysteries.
Cobbers of Mine and the Mining Magnate
by The Axeman, Alfred E. Wallace
ISBN 978-0-85905-735-6, (New, 2019), A4, 47 pages, 140 grams, $22.00* + POST
Alfred Wallace died of silicosis in 1924. He was an axeman in the forests and an underground miner on the Murchison. His verse was in demand for local celebrations and the regional newspapers. Few modern poets have had the acclaim of the public that the Axeman had.
His collection was reprinted for many years by the Northam newspaper. Some of his satirical verse such as The Bush Geologist, and The Mining Magnate was still being circulated in mining circles in the 1980s.
Places he versifies, such as Barney Murphy's Bungalow Hotel, and the mines where he worked, were part of my wanderings fifty years ago, and my grandfather was also at Wooroloo sanatorium for TB that he got in France. PJB
The Common Thread – Arnold Weinholt
Aussies in the thick of it. Stories from East Africa WWI, WWII. Ada Woodhill, Australian First Lady of German East Africa. And SOE’s Ethiopian Mission 101
Geoff Blackburn
ISBN 978-0-85905-710-3, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, 40 pp, 185 grams
$25.00 + POST
The first, and hopefully not the last, Australian politician shot for spying. Unreported byways and fascinating African adventures in the Great Game.
Cue to the Klondyke
Herbert Annesley Ainsworth
ISBN 978-0-85905-724-0, (New, 2018), A4, 28pp, 100 grams
$15.00* + POST
A great story of adventure and perseverance in two great gold rushes.
Dingbat Flat
The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Riots of 1934
Rod Moncrieff
ISBN 978-0-85905-711-0, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, 178pp, 500grams
$35.00* + POST
The race based riots and their causes have echoed over the past century. The first dispassionate study of a usually highly politicised incident. Essential reading for the multiculters.
“Eastward Ho!”
A trip through the Murchison Goldfields in 1894
by A Special Reporter
ISBN 978-0-85905-759-2, (1894 R 2019), A4, Indexed, 30pp, 100 grams, $22.00*
THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS’ DIARIES PROJECT INC.
Exploration Eastwards 1860-1869
Edited by Peter Bridge and Kim Epton. (WAEDP series.)
ISBN 978-0-85905-701-1, (New, 2018), casebound, section sewn, illustrated, maps, indexed, 576 pages, 1.5kg
$115.00* + POST
Contains some 30 expeditions including Lefroy and CC Hunt with appendices on the plants by Alex George and animals by Ian Abbott. Biographical notes on all known expedition members. Resolves the problems of the 'convicts gold' and Hunt's unknown convict helpers.
This is a very small run which will ensure future scarcity.
The companion volume 1869-1896 will go to the printers in July.
Flying Kangaroos in the West
by Tony McGrath
ISBN 978-0-85905-781-3
WA has been well-served by two world-class international and interstate airlines since the 1930s-1940s, and Flying Kangaroos in the West provides a detailed overview of their histories in Western Australian since the beginning.
Qantas Airways is nearing its hundredth anniversary, and for most of its life has been deeply engaged with WA. Together with the former Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) / Australian Airlines, this book describes these two 'Flying Kangaroo' carriers' collective 125+ years 'in the West'.
Qantas's engagement with WA goes right back to the first Australia-England air services in the mid-1930s. Its war commitments soon followed, evacuating civilians from Java to Broome, and undertaking rescue missions in WA's Kimberley region. It suffered tragic losses from Japanese attacks in the process. In 1943, Qantas launched the world's longest non-stop air service between Perth's Swan River and Ceylon, a covert operation that provided Australia's only wartime international air link. Perth remained at the forefront of Qantas's developments during the 1940s-50s, becoming an international gateway to exotic, new Qantas air routes to Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The book describes Qantas's continuing growth in WA right through to the present day, including the development of its sophisticated domestic network to, from and within WA, up to today's 'Project Sunrise', launching ultra-long-haul non-stop flights between Perth-London and other routes.
The former TAA / Australian Airlines was born out of the Commonwealth Government's post-war nationalisation ideology, and it quickly established itself as a highly respected, efficient airline. TAA introduced a motivated and engaged workforce and the 'Fly TAA The Friendly Way' service ethos. But most importantly, it offered Western Australians competition on interstate and intrastate air routes.
How to buy:
Contact the author at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0417 134 458 or buy online at www.tony-mcgrath.com
Sample page images on the website
RRP $29.95
Collated by Peter J. Bridge
ISBN 978-0-85905-763-9, (2019), A4, indexed, 40pp, 125 grams, $22.00*
The real prospecting pioneer of the Murchison, defamed and pauperised by the powers that were and are.
Goodbye Dad – See you in fifteen years.
by Stanley & Lorraine Spring
ISBN 978-0-85905-753-0, (2019), A4, 150 pp, indexed, illustrated, 455 grams, $25.00* + postage.
Available direct from L. Spring, 4 Council place, East Fremantle, 6158. 0467 061 470. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hillie's Gift: A memoir of Australia's first rural guide dog owner Hilda Schell.
by Jenny Byatt.
ISBN 978-0-85905-785-1, (New, 2020), A4, 158 pages, illustrated, 450 grams, $50.00* POSTAGE $12.45 Australia wide.
Biographical reminiscences collected by the editor over many years as a memorial to Hilda.
Horse Trams of the old West
Peter J. Bridge
ISBN 978-0-85905-733-2, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, 26pp, 90 grams
$20.00* + POST
Horse trams were a feature of the old north coastal towns, taking passengers and cargo from the jetties to the townships.
In Tropical Skies
A History of Aviation to Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands
By Tony McGrath
ISBN 978-0-85905-756-1 (New, 2019) A4, illustrated.
$29.95* (to purchase please contact the author)
This book outlines the development of commercial aviation to Australia's Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands since 1939. Formerly British colonies, Christmas Island lies off the coast of Java just a short flight away from Jakarta, and Cocos Islands lie half-way between Perth and Sri Lanka.
The decades hold interesting tales about these remote and beguiling islands, and this book outlines their aviation history against a backdrop of wars, changes of sovereignty and other geopolitical and major events.
Qantas's post-war Australia-England air services operated via Cocos Islands and this was followed by flights via Cocos Islands to South Africa and to South East Asia. The islands soon became a vital, mid-ocean air junction between four continents. Christmas Island's earliest flights were Royal Air Force flying boats from Singapore to the island's Flying Fish Cove. It later hosted a small private landing strip, before an official airport was opened in the 1970s, enabling regular air links to the Australian mainland and to South East Asia.
_ _ _ _ _
How to buy:
Contact the author at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0417 134 458 or buy online at www.tony-mcgrath.com
Sample page images at: www.facebook.com/InTropicalSkies
RRP $29.95
Indexes.
Gold in the Gascoyne, Winning the Gascoyne, Wheeltracks, Golden Days, My Fourth Tour, The Golden Quest, Beyond Boundary Fences, Before Coolgardie II.
Indexes to the above Hesperian Press books are $10 each. Eventually they will be incorporated into a vast master index of Hesperian books. If I survive that long.