Hesperian Press

Wiluna

"Edge of the Desert"

by P.R. Heydon (O.A.M.)

ISBN 0 85905 216 8, (1996 new), Hard Cover, 155mm x 240mm, 624pp, illustrated, 1kg

$75.00 + POST

Wiluna - "Edge of The Desert", celebrates the Centenary of Wiluna, and covers the period 1886-1996.  It tells of the three phases of gold mining; of a vibrant town of 9,000 people at its peak; of the reminiscences of 80 people living in the town and on pastoral properties.

Winjan's People

by J.E. Hammond

ISBN 0 85605 330 X, (Reprint of 1933 edition, 1980/2005), Soft Cover, 86pp, illustrated, 125grams

$22.00 + POST

The story of the South West Australian aborigines.

Winning the Gascoyne

by Rhonda McDonald

ISBN 0-85905-158-7, (1991, 2008), 248pp, illustrated, Soft Cover,  320 grams

$35.00 + POST

The history of the Upper Gascoyne stations and area.

Winning the Gascoyne INDEX $10

Wittenoom

by Ian Duggan and Katharina Zeelenberg.

ISBN 978-0-85905-688-5, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, 147 pages, 425 grams

$40.00* + POST

A critical examination of the previously unexamined files of government departments and corporations that inflicted the disasters of asbestosis and mesothelioma on the Australian population from the mines at Wittenoom. An essential read for all involved in Wittenoom.

Wongan Gold: The Wongan Hills Goldrush of 1888. 

Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-910-7, (New, 2021), A4, 32 pages, illustrated,   grams, $22.00*

Edward Payne, who had helped to discover the Yilgarn found gold at Wongan. The short lived rush was stymied by the land alienation grants to the Midland Railway Company.

Now over 130 years on, the area has great potential for large base metal discoveries.

Wongi Wongi

by Judith Drake-Brockman

ISBN 0 85905 286 9, (2001 new), Soft Cover, 162pp, illustrated, 225grams

$22.00 + POST

In 1987 a part-Aboriginal author depicted the Drake-Brockman family as heartless exploiters of the Aboriginal people. For over a decade Miss Drake-Brockman and her family suffered these insults with dignity and reserve. Now she has spoken out.

Wooden Butterflies

by Anna Wiciak-Suchnicka

ISBN 0 85905 131 5, (1989 new), Soft Cover, 137pp, 210grams

$22.00 + POST

This autobiography evokes a different world in Poland, since destroyed by the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.  The story of the flight of the author and her family through Asia and Africa to Australia.

Woodlines of Western Australia 

A comprehensive history of the Goldfields woodlines.

by Phil Bianchi.

ISBN 978-0-85905-725-7, (New, 2019), 170 x 240, french flaps, heavily illustrated, 449 pages, 1.2kg, $85.00* + POST

Without a source of cheap energy to fuel steam boilers and for ore treatment, only the Western Australian mines with rich ore would have been productive.

Firewood companies established privately owned train lines up to 120 miles out from major centres such as Kalgoorlie to bring in firewood. Although the Kurrawang and Lakewood woodlines are the main feature of this book; other woodlines included Lakeside south of Boulder, Kurramia/Kanowna, Cue, Laverton, Gwalia and Westonia.

Firewood cutters, carters and loaders from war torn Europe, came to Australia seeking a better life; they lived in hessian walled basic camps with earthen floors and a tin roof. The book features 22 first-hand accounts of the hardships faced by woodliners working, living and growing up on the woodlines. Many a wife and family joining the husband after a few years were shocked at the conditions; suffering flies, heat, cold, loneliness, maggots in meat and poor quality drinking water.

Between 1900 and 1964 a total of 21.6 million tons of firewood had been cut; during 1912-16 average production was 650,000 tons per year. By the time the firewood companies ceased operations they had clear-felled a staggering 3.04 million hectares of goldfields woodlands; almost half the area of Tasmania.

Other woodline topics discussed include: racism, riots, internment, exploitation and bribery, shanties, sports days, strikes and deaths and accidents.

THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS’ DIARIES PROJECT INC.

“Work Completed, Canning”

A Comprehensive History of the Canning Stock Route

1906 – 2010

by Phil Bianchi

ISBN 978-0-85905-549-9, (2013 New), 724pp, 274 photos, 38 maps, casebound, dust jacket, 1kg+

$120.00* + POST

Stiffened soft cover $85.00* + POST

The story of Alfred W. Canning and the development and subsequent use of the 1800 kilometre long Canning Stock Route from Halls Creek to Wiluna is told in this new volume.

Working Lives

of the 1967/69 Geology Graduates of the University of Queensland

Bill Koppe, Peter Hayden and Bill Turner

ISBN 978-0-85905-731-8, (New, 2018), 160x240mm, illustrated, 119pp, 325 grams

$30.00* + POST

An important and innovative examination of geological careers in Australia.

The World's Rough Hand

by H. Phelps Whitmarsh

ISBN 0 85905 336 9, (2005 Reprint 1898), Soft Cover, 108pp,160grams

$22.00 + POST

"Lest it be thought that my misfortunes and penniless condition weighed heavily upon me. I would here record that throughout my life I was never more light of heart, more free from care, more genuinely happy , than at this very time, when the world's rough hand was knocking the boy into shape of a man. There were times, to be sure, when I cast down; there were periods of homesickness, moments of bitter disappointment; but these downs in my experience were always of short duration, and, by comparison, the ups became doubly joyous. As a rubber ball, when struck, receives a dent and then regains its spheric shape, so did I, with youthful buoyancy, soon recovered from these blows of circumstance. It was all, indeed, one grand adventure, crammed with interest, the cham of novelty, and real life."

Wreck of the Barque Stefano

off the North West Cape of Australia in 1875

by Gustave Rathe

ISBN 0 85905 144 7, (1990 new), Soft Cover, 136pp, 190grams

$26.00 + POST

The Stefano was wrecked on the North West Cape in Western Australia in 1875.  After clashes with the natives the last two survivors were finally rescued by Captain Tuckey.  A classic of survival.

Wyndham - with a ton of salt

by Ken Mellowship

ISBN 0 85905 345 8, (2004 New), soft cover, A4, 53 pp, illustrated, 170grams

$22.00* + POST

The people of Wyndham on the wharf and at the meat works, the characters and their foibles. A series of sketches of life in a forgotten town with sidelights on the Territory and PNG during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s