Hesperian Press

All Men Back - All One Big Mistake

by W.A. (Bill) Bee

ISBN 0 85905 254 0, (1998 new), Soft Cover, 156pp, illustrated, 230grams

$22.00 + POST

An amazing story told by an Australian sailor of his experiences immediately before and after capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

As a signalman on the flag deck of HMAS Perth, Bill (Buzzer to his mates) Bee gives an eye witness account of events leading up to debacle of the Java Sea Battle on 27 February 1942, and final annihilation of Allied Naval Forces defending Java on the 1 March 1942, in Sunda Straits.

Then as a Prisoner of War for 3½ years the author takes the reader on a journey that describes vividly the anxieties and perils he and his mates experienced while travelling over vast distances of land and sea to satisfy their captors' forced labour requirements. This includes building the Burma-Thai Railway to coal-mining in Japan.

The narrative begins in Fremantle when HMAS Perth arrives in February 1942 and finishes when the author returns home in Perth, Western Australia in 1945.

Along the Ashburton

by Rhonda McDonald

ISBN 0 85905 288 5, (2002 new), Soft Cover, section sewn, 278 pages, illustrated, 385grams

$35.00 + POST

The history of Onslow and the stations of the Ashburton.

Rhonda McDonald (nee Stidworthy) spent much of her childhood and married life in country similar to that of which she has written. She commenced her schooling at Onslow in 1936 and finished it at the Presentation Convent Carnarvon, along with some of the people mentioned in this book.

After leaving school Rhonda worked on the Carnarvon telephone exchange before becoming Gascoyne Traders' first secretary. Eventually she married Allan McDonald of Mangaroon Station, where they lived until their retirement to Perth.

Along the Coast

BY Ship Northwards

edited by Peter J Bridge, with a foreword by maritime historian and artist Ross Shardlow

ISBN 978-0-85905-604-5, (R, N2015), A4, illustrated, 212 pages, 580 grams

$50.00* + POST

The forgotten role of coastal shipping in both supplying the North and keeping Westralia in contact with the outside world. A collection of 25 descriptions of voyages along the coast from Eucla to Wyndham, interstate and to south and east Asia, in the period 18 80s to the 1960s.

Along the Road to Cue and other verses

by Andree Hayward

ISBN 978-0-85905-136-1, (2010 new), 106pp, illustrated, 156grams

$22.00 + POST

Andree Hayward was a lawyer, poet and newspaper editor and one of the greatest influences on the developing high culture of the Westralian goldfields. This collection of his verse, a biography and literary criticism fulfils promises made by Hesperian to Hayward's grand-daughter over 25 years ago, and to Beverley Smith, the first of 'modern times' to recognize the value of a virile goldfields literature.

Chris Holyday has researched and edited this expanded collection, marking the 60th anniversary of Andree Hayward' death.

Alphabetical Index to the 1954 “List of Cancelled Gold Mining Leases Which Have Produced Gold”

by P. J. Bridge

ISBN 0 85905 005 X, (1972 New), Soft Cover, 68pp, A3, 400grams, $50.00*

This is an essential companion to the List of Cancelled GMLs produced by the Mines Dept which is in district order. With the alpha index and the name of a GML its locality can be found.

Always Your Own, Allan

Edited and written by Julie Easton.

ISBN 978-0-85905-559-8, (2013, New), A4, 60pp, illustrated, 210 grams.

$22.00* + POST

A love story; a social history of farming and community life; a snapshot of the concerns and issues facing young people in the late 1930s in the south-west of Western Australia in the late 1930s.

Among Wild Animals and People in Australia

by Eric Mjoberg, translated by Margareta Luotsinen and Kim Akerman.

ISBN 978-0-85905-507-9, (New 2012), Casebound, dj, illustrated, 362pp, 1.1 kg,

$95.00* + POST

From October 1910 to August 1911 biologist Erik Mjoberg and his seven man Swedish team travelled by bullock wagon through the West Kimberley collecting invertebrates, birds, mammals, and ethnographic research material.

Amongst Stone Age People in the Queensland Wilderness

by Eric Mjoberg

Translated by FM Fryer, Edited by Asa Ferrier and Rod Ritchie.

ISBN 978-0-85905-593-2, (New 2014), 421pp , 160 x 250, heavily [258] illustrated + 4 colour plates, casebound, dj, 1.3kg,

$110 .00* + POST

Published in Swedish in 1918 and now available for the first time in English. A magnificent book on Eric Mjoberg's North Queensland anthropological and natural history collecting expedition. Rarely seen photos of NQ Aboriginals, ethnographic items, tropical rainforests and their endemic animals.

A small run with only a few casebound so Queenslanders please do not delay.

An Australian Centaur

Harry Farber, 1880-1965 Horseman

by Edna Baulch

ISBN 978-0-85905-531-4, (2012), 32pp, A4, illustrated, 120 grams

$16.00* + POST

The biography of one of Australia’s greatest horsemen. Edna’s biog plus other notes, verse, and many photos.

An Island Unto Itself

by Leslie R. Marchant

ISBN 0 85905 120 X, (1988 new), Soft Cover, 152mm x 223mm, 224pp, illustrated, 460grams

$30.00 + POST

Based on research findings and the results of maritime expeditions conducted by the author, this book provides a comprehensive account of Dampier's scientific explorations in New Holland during the English Restoration and Revolutionary periods, when English sciences advanced with the then newly-established Royal Society.

And if her droughts are bitter

by Gladys Linke

ISBN 0-85905-228-1, (1996 & 2003), illust, 133pp, 180grams

$22.00 + POST

The Linke family and their life on the far outback Prenti Downs and Carnegie Stations. The book also details aspects of the canning Stock Route. Tommy Injebong. Len Beadell.

An important book on the problems of bush station life.

Linke family direct sales: Northam 089 621 2555, Prenti Downs 089 981 2988, Paroo Station 089 981 2882.

And now... The Governor's Wife

by Diane Pope and Jenny Davis

ISBN 978-0-85905-646-5, (New, 2016), 195 x 235, illustrated, 56 pages, 230 grams

$30.00* + POST

For all sales and other queries please contact Diane Pope, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and see www.endersleafarm.com

Three Swan River Colony Governor's wives share their stories in this play. Ellen Mangles Stirling (1830-1839) and George Fletcher Moore sing the song 'Western Australia for me' that he composed for the first ball in the colony in 1831. Mary Essex Hampton (1862-1868) tries to justify the actions of both her husband and son in their treatment of the convicts. Lady Frederick Broome (1882-1889) reminisces about the many books and articles she published describing the early colonial life in Western Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They all argue emphatically about the treatment of aboriginals during their time in Western Australia.

And Some Found Graves

The Goldfields Diary of John Aspinall

compiled by A.J. Thompson

ISBN 0 85905 186 2, (2002 reprint of 1993 edition), Soft Cover, 95pp, illustrated, 150grams

$16.50 + POST

I found Johnny Aspinall's grave by chance in February 1980 while prospecting at Hawks Nest, about 15km west of Laverton in the Mt Margaret Goldfields of Western Australia.

Johnny began his diary in 1895 as he left his native New Zealand and his last entry was made in 1896 one prior to his death when he was struck by lightning. Ironically, his last entry mentioned that there were thunderstorms around."           A.J. Thompson

The Anzac Squadron

by Norman Ashworth

ISBN 0 85905 198 6, (1994 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 285pp, illustrated, 350grams

$33.00 + POST

The Anzac Squadron is the story of 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, formed in Britain on Anzac Day 1942. The Sunderland Flying Boat Squadron spent the next three years opposing Admiral Doenitz's U Boats in the battle of the Atlantic.

The young Australian and British air crew flew their boats in search of the ever-elusive U Boats while the Luftwaffe JU88 fighters hunted the hunters.

From this combination came both excitement and tragedy. This is a story not only of the moments of excitement that punctuated the otherwise long monotonous patrols but also back at base where aircrew and ground staff alike had to face the rigours of wartime Britain, far from their homes and loved ones. It is a story told largely by those who took part, in their own way and in their own words.

The Apotheosis of the Kero Tin

ISBN 978-0-85905-140-8, (2011), 16pp, illustrated, 40grams

$10.00* + POST

How an outcast of society became the object of admiration and utility, if not a thing of beauty.

An essay on the role of the old kero tin.

The Archimedean Lever

Alexander Livingstone, a freewheeling journalist on the Westralian Goldfields

Collated and edited by Peter J Bridge with Angela Teague

ISBN 978-0-85905-485-0, (2010 new), A4, 44pp, 150 grams

$22.00 + POST

Alexander Livingstone was one of those characters thrown up in the convulsions of the Australian gold rushes. They burned brightly and quickly, like the volcano that suddenly erupts and then returns to dormancy.

Australia Twice Traversed

by Ernest Giles

ISBN 0 85905 206 0, (1995 reprint of 1889 edition), 382pp, illustrated, 670grams

$50.00 + POST

A classic of Australian exploration in one volume, including maps.

Australia's Fighting Sons of the Empire

portraits and biographies of Australians in the Great War.

ISBN 978-0-85905-568-0, (1922, 2014), illustrated, indexed, 240 x 300, (A4 plus) Section sewn with stiffened soft cover and French flaps, glossed paper, 298pp, 1.4 kg.

$95.00* + POST

This difficult to obtain book was first published in 1922 after a troubled gestation. Many of the original copies have disintegrated due to binding problems. It is now available again in an attractive facsimile edition. Contains over 1450 biographies and illustrations of the soldiers. This is a book that will become a family heirloom.

Australian Aboriginal Tracking, Water Finding and Smoke Signaling

by Alexander Thomas Magarey

ISBN 978-0-85905-616-8, (R 1890s, 2015), A4, 34pp, Illustrated, 130 grams

$22.00* + POST

Magarey was a South Australian explorer with a keen interest in Aboriginal customs. These papers are the result of his investigations among South Australian Aboriginals and are some of the best on the subjects covered, and in the case of smoke signalling, the only detailed description available.

The Australian Medicine Man

(Der Australische Medizenmann)

by Helmut Petri

ISBN 978-0-85905-583-3, (2014, New), 206pp, SC – French flap, 160 x 250, 515g.

$55.00* + POST

Available for the first time in English, Petri’s landmark 1952 book on Aboriginal medicine men, shamans, witchdoctors. With a Foreword by Susan Bradley and Introduction by Kim Akerman.

The second volume of a trilogy of translations of Petri’s important work in a culture now destroyed.