Australia Adventure

The author of the acclaimed Only Killers and Thieves returns to turn-of-the-century Australia in this powerful sequel that follows the story of brothers Tommy and Billy McBride, the widow of their family’s killer, Katherine Sullivan, and the sadistic Native Police officer Edmund Noone.

After a card game turns violent, Franko escapes into the Australian wilderness, where he experiences the diverse hardship of the Australian bush but is rescued from certain disaster by an Aborigine. Sergeant Patterson is a tough lawman who defends the one he considers most worthy—guilty or innocent. He is determined to bring Franko to trial.

In October 1863, Ian Steele, having taken on the identity of Captain Samuel Forbes, is fighting the Pashtun on the north-west frontier in India. Half a world away, the real Samuel Forbes is a lieutenant in the third New York Volunteers and is facing the Confederates at the Battle of Mission Ridge in Tennessee. Neither is aware their lives will change beyond recognition in the year to come. In London, Ella, the love of Ian's life, is unhappily married to Count Nikolai Kasatkin.

Australia is different - a vast island continent with distances so great that the capital of Western Australia is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. The landscape embraces magnificent tropical rainforests and deserts the size of several European states; temperate areas that sustain a flourishing wine industry, making Australia the world's fourth largest wine exporter; and a 16,000-mile coastline of breathtaking beaches. Plus its unique fauna is testament to the country's down-underness.

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As he sails out with the First Fleet, Tom sadly realises that he will never set foot on English ground again. Luckily, not long after Tom’s arrival in the colony, the fair and kind Sergeant Stanley decides to take on Tom as a servant. Together, Tom, Sergeant Stanley and his son, Rob, build a house, set up an orchard and a vegetable garden for themselves - and thrive, unlike many others in the new colony.

John Franklin always wanted to be a sailor. As a volunteer in the Royal Navy at age fourteen, he found himself in the Battle of Copenhagan, but nothing could prepare him for the adventure of a lifetime, when he set off in 1801 with his cousin Matthew Flinders on HMS Investigator as it sought to chart the first circumnavigation of Australia. Taking on responsibility for the chronometers, under the jealous eye of Flinders' younger brother, the young midshipman found all the action, adventure and excitement he'd hoped for in his new life at sea.

The future. Climate change has rendered much of the world desolate. Crops are failing. Rising seas have flooded coastal communities. The earth is dying, and humanity careens toward extinction. Enter the Olympus Project—a plan to colonise the moon, building on the fledgling Artemis base, led by three of humankind’s best and brightest: Troy Bruin, Xavier Consus, and Xanthe Waters.

The Queen's Colours leadership program is heading to Egypt and Alice-Miranda and her friends are thrilled. There are hidden tombs to explore, a new culture to experience and a lot to learn about the country's ancient past. But something is amiss among the pyramids and palm trees. Bizarre happenings back home, a new friend with something to hide and adults with stories that don't quite add up leave the friends very worried indeed. One thing's for sure: when Alice-Miranda starts digging, she'll find more than just buried treasure!

One month into our stay, we'd managed to dispatch most of our charges. We executed the chickens. One of the cats disappeared, clearly disgusted with our urban ways. And Lucky [the cow] was escaping almost daily. It seemed we didn't have much of a talent for farming. And we still had eleven months to go." Antonia Murphy, you might say, is an unlikely farmer. Born and bred in San Francisco, she spent much of her life as a liberal urban cliché, and her interactions with the animal kingdom rarely extended past dinner.

Lights, camera, action! Yeehaw!

Reunions and rivalries in the land of the brave!

After a disastrous fire in the village leaves a family without a home, Alice-Miranda and her friends pitch in to help. They decide to hold a music festival to raise funds. The only trouble is, not everyone's as keen on the idea. Things are also heating up in Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies with Miss Reedy at the helm. The arrival of a new teacher, a deputy turned diva and an entire faculty of disgruntled staff sees tempers flare. Has the power gone to Miss Reedy's head or is there a sinister hand at play?

This charming account of the voyage of two men in a small boat half way round the world from Plymouth to New Zealand in 1953 is a rare insight into a time, not long ago, when sailors had no GPS, electronics, radio or any of the mod cons that we take for granted today. Without lifejacket or a life raft, they 'just took what came along', hand steering all the way, navigating by sextant, hand-cranking their engine and using oil lamps for light at night and for navigation. Sailors will be staggered how primitive conditions were only a few decades ago, even though it was the norm at the time.

Debut novelist Karen Healey taps Maori mythology for this fresh spin on the fantasy genre. Seventeen-year old Ellie Spencer has a crush on the cute and mysterious Mark. That’s the normal part of her life. But something terrifying also haunts Ellie and her community. People are being killed—and their eyes are being removed. Ellie soon learns two shocking truths. First, Mark is part patupaiarehe, the Maori equivalent of a fairy. Second, a war is brewing.

Tasmania to London. One end of the globe to the other. Eight hundred hitchhiking rides. Eighteen thousand miles. Four seasons. Three continents. Nineteen countries. How many rides does it take to hitch from Tasmania to London? Rogue wanderer Jamie Maslin decides to find out, propelling him into a high-stakes adventure of a lifetime that sees him tackle searing desert, freezing mountains, tropical jungle, and barren steppes on little more than a thumb and a prayer.

Elizabeth staggered out onto dry land from the dark confines of the convict ship which had been her home these past six long months. Only one thing had kept her whole and alive when typhus and scurvy claimed lives on all sides. The vision of Robert's tawny eyes.

When an earthquake causes a breach at a super-secret Pharos prison, Kensy and Max must join an urgent assignment to Queenstown, New Zealand. Time is of the essence—the escaped prisoners are two highly dangerous men out for revenge against both Pharos and the Spencer family. The twins head into the wilderness in pursuit. But the mountains are dangerous, and instability brought on by the earthquake is only making things worse. Meanwhile, strange things are happening back in London as one Pharos agent is attacked and another disappears.

Alice-Miranda and her friends are off to the Australian Outback! They’re going to help an old family friend who’s found himself short staffed during cattle mustering season. The landscape is like nothing else - wide open and dusty red as far as the eye can see. It’s also full of quirky characters, like eccentric opal miner Sprocket McGinty and the enigmatic Taipan Dan.

After a school excursion goes horribly wrong, Kensy and Max are left with a sneaking suspicion that the incident was no accident. But there's no time for investigation as the twins are whisked away on a fully sanctioned Pharos mission. Upon landing in Zermatt, Kensy and Max are tasked with infiltrating the Van Leer family. Strange as the Van Leers are, proof of their misdeeds is scarce. And when a surprising figure appears in the ski town, it seems there is more than one mystery to solve. Kensy and Max are on a mission for justice and won't stop until it's served.

Eileen Kramer has lived the most extraordinary life. Born just after Australia entered World War I, she embraced creativity and adventure from an early age. She danced and painted murals in Karachi; worked as an artist's model in Paris and London; met Ella Fitzgerald and Groucho Marx; and learned the twist from Louis Armstrong. In September 2013, aged ninety-nine, Eileen returned to Australia. Now, at 108, she is still dancing.