PLEASE NOTE: Any book title starting with "The" - the second word of the title is used to list by.
Disorderly Proceedings in the Park
Western Australian Football in Colonial Times
by Steve Errington
ISBN 978-0-85905-637-3, (2016, New), A4, illustrated, 194 pages, 535 grams
$40.00* +POST
In the early 1880s in the sleepy towns of Perth and Fremantle young men played loosely organised rugby matches. But in 1885 some keen young players of Victorian Rules imposed their will on this tired scene and formed what is now the West Australian Football League, starting a competition which continues 131 years later.
Clubs came and went: Centrals, Metropolitans, Victorians and West Australians are no more. Unions changed their name. An early East Perth club lasted two years.
Do Not Yield To Despair
The Exploration Diaries of Frank Hann 1895--1908
edited by Mike Donaldson and Ian Elliot
ISBN 085905 226 5, (1998 new), Case Bound, A4 size, 440pp illustrated, 1.4kg
$95.00* + POST
Frank Hann was one of the greatest bushman in Australia. He travelled from Northern Queensland through the Territory to the Kimberley and finally to Laverton and the Eastern Goldfields where he spent his life exploring the desert.
These unique diaries record his travels and life and are essential reading for anyone travelling the Western Australian and Northern Territory deserts.
Dobson of Australia.
Peter J. Bridge.
ISBN 978-0-85905-952-7, (New,2022), A4, 28 pages, $30.00*
Dobson, a lucky Irish prospector at Kanowna headed North. He became a fixture of bush life for several decades and is one of the great characters of the North.
Dog Registration Discs in Western Australia
by Walter R. Bloom & Alf Campbell.
ISBN 978-0-85905-845-2, (New 2020), A4, heavily illustrated in colour, 168 pages, french flaps, 530 grams, $60.00*
A small run of what will become a real collector’s item. Postage is $12.45 for 1 to 3 copies.
The first and only catalogue of these very collectable relics, which is an outcome of the metal detector gold and relic hunting hobby. Judging by the value of some items the finding these could be like finding gold.
This is a thoroughly researched and outstanding colour publication with many fine examples illustrated of a substantial collector base. It is a snapshot of 20th Century WA local history, where there are more dogs than people.
Dollypot
edited by P.J. Bridge
ISBN 0 85905 100 5, (1987 new), 168pp, 152mm x 222mm, illustrated, 350grams
SC $22.00, HC $30.00 + POST
Dollypot is a magnificent collection of prospectors' and miners' stories from the pages of the old Western Mail newspaper.
Humour, sadness, thirst, booze, hard luck, life, people and poetry of the goldfields - from the Kimberley in the north to Ravensthorpe in the south east of Western Australia.
Don’s Adventure. Invasion of Balikpapan. ‘F’ Day – Sunday 1 July 1945.
The diaries of Corporal Donald Briggs (WX 16865) of 1 Australian Armoured Regiment, ‘A’ Squadron and Japanese Sailor Katsuichi Kitao. Compiled by Donald (Don) Charles Briggs.
ISBN 978-0-85905-923-7, (New 2022), A4, 56 pages, illustrated, 180 grams, $22.00*
Contains the Japanese diary as well as Briggs’ war diary.
Down the Dinbole
by Bonnie Milne
ISBN 0 85905 348 2, (2004 new),125pp, illustrated, 165 grams
SC $22.00 + POST
Bonnie Milne grew up on an isolated sheep station in the Upper Gascoyne district.
This is a light hearted look at family life on Coor de Wandie station
Dr William John Peasley, a biography and bibliography
ISBN 978-0-85905-802-5, (2020), A5, 8 pages, $10.00*
The Drover's Scrapbook
edited by Peter J Bridge and Gail Dreezens
ISBN 978-0-85905-428-7, (2008), A4, 127pp, illustrated, Soft Cover, 370 grams
$30.00* + POST
A collection of reports and reminiscences of WA droving from the 1880s to the 1950s, giving many names and records of trips with sheep and cattle from the north to the southern markets.
The Drover’s Cook and other verses
by Tom Quilty
ISBN 978-0-85905-640-3, (1958 R 2016), 124 pages, soft cover, 140 grams.
$25.00* + POST
Tom Quilty was a well-known Kimberley cattleman who became famous for his verse and especially for his descriptive poem, “The Drover’s Cook – weighed fifteen stone, He had one bloodshot eye, He had no laces on his boots, No buttons on his fly.”
The royalties for this book go to the Kimberley RFDS. This small reprint of a now rare book is done to satisfy the curious readers of the new Red Dog: True Blue by Louis de Bernieres in which the author quotes verse from The Drover’s Cook.
Droving Days
by H.M. Barker
ISBN 0 85905 197 8, (1994 reprint of 1966 edition), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 124pp, illustrated, 175grams
$22.00 + POST
The acute powers of observation and vivid recollection of years spent in the bush that characterised his Camels and the Outback are again delightfully shown by H.M. Barker.
After highlighting the achievements of some of the best known of the early pioneers - Hawden, Tyson, de Satge, Sutherland, Gray, Buchanan, Christison and Cotton - he introduces the pleasures, rigours, vagaries and discomforts of droving as he experienced them.
Droving with Ben Taylor
Up and down the Canning Stock Route in 1946
by Len Hill
ISBN 978-0-85905-472-0, (New 2009), 236pp, Soft Cover, 310 grams
$33.00. + POST
Droving with Ben Taylor is based on the diary of a Canning Stock Route drover. It is the only droving diary known from the 50 years of operation of the CSR, the longest and most remote stock route in the world. Here, detailed, the old hand, Ben Taylor, teaches the youthful Len Hill the art of droving in the desert lands. With horses and camels from Wiluna to Billiluna, and return with cattle, this unique account describes the pleasures and duties of a drovers life, the cattle, the land, and its inhabitants. Len Hill is a retired Kimberley pastoralist. Among his many local roles he was a Halls Creek Shire Councillor, a member of the Kimberley Zone Development Committee, and a JP.
The Drummonds of Hawthornden.
Rica Erickson.
ISBN 978-1-875778-06-5, 208 pages, 160 x 240, illustrated, French flap cover, indexed, 520 grams, $65.00*
The pioneer botanical and police members of this family made a permanent mark on the colony.
A small run of a long out of print book.
Dry River
by Rachel Percy
As told by Dave Mills
ISBN 978-0-85905-505-5, (2012R), illust., 212 pp, 400g
$30.00 + POST
Humorous, gritty, real…
David Mills’ biography, Dry River, is a richly detailed account of working life in the Australian Outback in the last days of the old stockroutes and packsaddle cattle camps. An extraordinary story of an ordinary bloke.
Dry River is a vivid account of one man’s pursuit of his dream:
“…and one day – you never know – to have a cattle station of my own.”