Hesperian Press

The Wanderings of a Simple Child.

A record of Australian life

by A.G. 'Smiler' Hales.

ISBN 978-0-85905-783-7 (NR, 2020), A4, 69 pages, 270 grams, $30.00*

The early days of Broken Hill were the teething ground for many at Coolgardie. This autobiog details many later famous characters in training.

The Wheat Thieves

by James Downie.

ISBN 978-0-85905-817-9 (1934 R 2020), A5,  9 pages, $10.00* 

A 1930s tale of the wheat gangs stealing bagged wheat during the depression.

The Wild Nor'-West 

by Crosscut Wilson

ISBN 978-0-85905-692-2, (R, 2018), A5, $10.00*

The Winds of Change

by Gary Mentiplay

ISBN 978 0 85905 931 2. (New, 2022) A4 size, Soft Cover (French Flaps), 302 pages, illustrated colour, 1.2kg,

$60.00 AUD; Postage within Australia $15.00 AUD.

Sub-titled "Memories of BMC Leyland Australia" this book's main focus is on the people that had a close connection with the company. There are 42 accounts from people that were involved at the main BMC Leyland Australia manufacturing plant in Zetland (NSW); the Dealers that sold and serviced the cars; and the owners that bought the cars new.

The company's products are covered, from the early post-war CKD assembled models to the locally manufactured Austin, Morris and Wolseley cars of the late 1950s; the front wheel drive era of the 1960s with the Mini, Morris 1100, Austin 1800, Morris 1500 and Nomad; and on into the 1970s with the Austin Kimberley, Marina and P76. There are in-depth accounts on the Leyland Marina, P76 Targa Florio, Force 7 coupe, plus information on the P76 in Australia's taxi fleets.

Also featured are the stories of two marathon long distance trips. From the United Kingdom to New Zealand in 1950 driving a Morris Oxford overland (with a couple of sea journeys included, of course) and an epic around-Australia drive in the 1979 REPCO Trial by members of the HMAS Cerberus Car Club.

General coverage includes details on the ethnic mix of employees at Zetland; the testing of prototypes in New South Wales and Queensland; Press reports on the future of Leyland Australia from early 1973 and late 1974, and a detailed account of the negotiations between the federal government and Leyland Australia in late 1974 on the closure of the Zetland plant and the company's restructure.

Contact:  Gary Mentiplay;    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Mob: 0420 448 036

The W.A. Digger Book

ISBN 978-0-85905-595-6, (1929, 2015), A4, 163 pages, illustrated, 430 grams.

$40.00* + POST

The W.A. Digger Book was published by the West Australian branch of the RSL in 1929, and expressed with picture and story the thoughts and experiences of the A.I.F. Over 160 A4 pages of reminiscence, story, verse, drawings and photographs, with a few contemporary supporting adverts from leading companies, make this a very interesting book. It contains forewords and articles by Monash, Chauvel, Hobbs, and Collett with contributions by Dryblower Murphy, Cyril Longmore, James Pollard, ‘Jean Dell’, and others writing under pen names familiar to readers of the Diggers Diary of the old Western Mail, which are a delight to read.

Wadjelas

The memoirs of a 1950s Patrol Officer

by Adrian Day

ISBN 978-0-85905-475-1, (2010), A4, illustrated, soft cover,  276pp, 765grams

$50.00* + POST

This story is about a very young man with noble intent, a lack of maturity and no training whatsoever who is sent out by government to deal with what it sees as a disintegrating and dying race. It is about the ineptitude of government in dealing with a giant problem the average citizens, if they concern themselves at all, think is being attended to by experts. That within some grand plan there are dove­tailed notions which will bring about a solution, if not now, then at some stage in the future.

Waiting for Rain

by Janet Wells

ISBN 0 85905 155 2, (1991 new), Soft Cover, 36pp, 70grams

$10.00* + POST

Prize-winning poetry of the North.

The Waldeck Story

Swan River Colony - Greenough 1836-1905

by Norma King

ISBN 0 85905 141 2, (1990 reprint of 1980 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 120pp, illustrated, 180grams

$22.00 + POST

The story of the Waldeck family of Greenough.

Diary. Walker Brothers Prospecting Expedition 1913.

Edited and annotated by by Jeremy Long and David Nash.

ISBN 978-0-85905-727-1, (New, 2022), 165 x 240, casebound, 180 pages, well illustrated in colour, with maps, indexed, 600grams, $90.00*

The annals of Australian land exploration include many expeditions remembered for misfortune, inexperience, or poor bushcraft. None of this applies to the eight months in 1913 when Chris Walker (1861–1930) led his brother Arthur and two other men (Crofts and Everett) prospecting by camel from Ryan’s Well (north of Alice Springs) west and southwest to Wiluna. The aim was to investigate ‘unknown country’ between the routes of previous desert explorers.  The party proceeded carefully, by scouting ahead for water before moving all the camels and equipment on from a known water source. They had no serious misadventures, and Chris Walker sent his diary and map to Canberra with its negative findings of any ‘mining or pastoral worth’. Their only backers were themselves and the Commonwealth Government, and both apparently had no interest in self-promotion. The report was eclipsed by the Great War (WWI), and although the WA section was serialised in a Perth newspaper in 1934, it has been largely overlooked.

Yet Walker’s competent journal includes numerous geological and natural history observations, and several interesting particular notes relating to Aborigines. Walker’s records are the earliest of what was later called Lake Mackay, well before the 1930 sighting by Mackay’s aerial survey.

The book includes maps, and photographs illustrating the route and the people. There are seven appendices, with biographies of the expedition members, a history of the recognition of Lake Mackay, a summary of the flora mentioned, and three indexes.

Walker in the Wilderness

The Life of R.J. Anketell

by Judith Anketell

ISBN 0 85905 243 5, (1988 new), Soft Cover, 196pp illustrated, HC 485grams, SC 340grams,

HC $40.00 SC $30.00 + POST  (An edition limited to 500 copies)

"We built no heroes, but we left no bones."

This remark, said by a colleague, sums up the meticulous planning and execution of the expeditions led by Richard John Anketell.

In Walker in the Wilderness the exploits of this engineer/surveyor are traced as he opened up large tracts of Australia.   He is one of a band of intrepid public servants who lived and worked in inhospitable country beyond the bounds of civilisation.   His efforts, and those of other public servants engaged in similar pioneering work, have been undeservedly overlooked.

Wallabong. The life of James Harvie Greig, on The Road to Nullagine.

ISBN 978-0-85905-874-2, (1949 R 2021), $10.00*

A brief biography of Grieg and his popular poem, On the Road to Nullagine.

The Wanderings of Dido – E A Church

 by Peter J. Bridge with Gail Dreezens

ISBN 0 85905 365 2, (2007 New), Soft Cover, A4, 40 pp, saddle, 160grams

$20* + POST

Ted Church was a prospector and raconteur of the Kalgoorlie area who recorded many of the incidents of goldfields life.

WANJINA

Notes on Some Iconic Ancestral Beings of the Northern Kimberley

by Kim Akerman

ISBN 978-0-85905-628-1, (2016, New), A4, French flap stiffened soft cover,193pp, full colour illust. 885grams

$85.00 + POST

Wanjina Beings – among the most distinctive of all the Aboriginal Ancestral Beings depicted in Australian rock art – have been a topic of conjecture among Western scholars since their discovery by the explorer George Grey in the northwest Kimberley Region of Australia, in 1838. Their origins have at various times been ascribed to travellers from other continents and even extraterrestrial sources.

Waterbag Joe Lyons

by Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-741-7, (New, 2020), A5. 21 pages, $10.00*

Joe Lyons, a successful prospector made his name immortal on the goldfields by going in search, on foot, with 8 waterbags, for a lost prospector. Like Russian Jack, his humanity not his gold, marked him as real man.

The Way We Were

Ed by PJ Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-609-0, (2015, R 1930s), A4, 107 pages, 310 grams

$30.00* + POST

The letters to The Western Mail in the early 1940s cover reminiscences and observations of bush life by men and women, farmers, drovers, sailors, fishermen and represent the land as it once was before the influx of aliens changed our life. Essential reading to grasp how the nation has changed and why so many are unhappy with the current trends.

We Came Home

or

Return from the Land of Milk and Honey

A True Story of Living Hell

by Richard J. Armstrong

ISBN 085905 352 0, (2005 new) 211pp, A4, Perfect bound, illust., 585grams

$30.00* + POST

The author was in Changi and on the Burma railway and this is his reminiscences of men and murderers, good men and bad, with neither fear nor favour. The author is now 85 and in failing health, but all his old comrades will remember this as vintage Richard. 

Wealth and Wildcats

by Raymond Radcliffe

ISBN 0 85905 309 1, (2004, reprint of 1898),129 pages, Illustrated, 190grams

$22.00 + POST

Raymond Radclyffe, journalist for the London Financial Times traveled through the goldfields of Western Australia and New Zealand in the late 1890s.

No other contemporary writers match his astute and cynically amusing observations of the miners and their mines, the social scene, politics and resources.

The description of places such as Dandalup, Yalgoo, and Mt Magnet also illuminates obscure gold rushes and their characters. Wealth and Wildcats is a nugget in the wilderness of words on Australia’s greatest gold rush. 

Well Drilling Plants and Gasoline Engines

by the Goldfields Diamond Drilling Coy. Pty. Ltd.

ISBN 978-0-85905-454-6, (?1920s, 2008), Soft Cover, 78 pages, A4, 235grams

$25.00* + POST

This heavily illustrated catalogue and descriptive booklet of ?1920s diamond drilling equipment for water and oil is invaluable for machinery collectors and historians of the pastoral and oil drilling industry in Australia. The Foreword details it’s approach:-

"In the following pages we submit illustrations with brief descriptions of Boring Plants, tools, and accessories, manufactured by us at Melbourne. If you are interested in boring, a careful perusal will repay you.

West Australian Gold Towns and Settlements

by Ian Murray with Phil Bianchi, Maria Bloomfield and Celene Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-094-4, (2012, New), A4, 520pp, 1.72kg

$110.00* + POST

Two huge volumes with 199 pages of text on the establishment history and 403 pages of original surveys and town maps.

Fully indexed with the names of the first inhabitants.

Published with the help of the Leonora Shire.

Only sold as the two volume set. Don’t lend and lose as we printed small matching numbers and will not supply individual volumes.

The West Pilbara

Sail and Teams to Bulk Carriers and Bitumen

by Doug Gordon

ISBN 978-0-85905-444-7, (2008 Reprint), 162pp, softcover, A4, illustrated, 410grams

$35.00* + POST                   

 Reprinted with index

Doug’s memoirs cover his families involvement in the early NW and Millstream Station. It is very well illustrated. Contains biographical sketches of N.W. characters such as Jack Edney An important book on the N.W.why none of his four children has embarked on the same course!

A new edition of this popular book, now indexed. The Gordon family were pioneers of the Pilbara. Covers the early history and the development of Millstream Station, together with Doug’s life at Wittenoom and many of the NW personalities.