Australian History

The author of The Paris Model captures the glamour, style, excitement, and romance of a bygone era in this sumptuous novel—set in the Sydney and London of the 1960s—about an up-and-coming young Australian reporter with a deadly secret. Breaking into the newspaper business in 1960s Sydney—a...

The story of Australia's last bushranging gang - the murderous Kenniffs. Easter Sunday, 1902, deep in the Carnarvon Ranges a police constable and station manager are slain then later incinerated, their remains stuffed into saddlebags. Accused of the ghoulish crime are two members of the...

Given their stellar legacy, it is little surprise that ANZAC soldiers were used by the British Empire for the several decades, most notably in World War II, ensuring that even after the British Empire declined, the Australian and New Zealand troops’ contributions to the Commonwealth remain a source of pride.

Two brothers are exposed to the brutal realities of life and the seductive cruelty of power in this riveting debut novel—a story of savagery and race, injustice and honor, set in the untamed frontier of 1880s Australia—reminiscent of Philipp Meyer’s The Son and the novels of Cormac...

The little boat with a big past: the fight to save one of the most important artefacts of Australian military history. For many years, thousands of people have walked past an unassuming black timber fishing boat bobbing in the water down at the wharves of Sydney's Darling Harbour. But...

WINNER OF THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR BEST TRUE CRIME 2023 WINNER OF THE UK TRUE CRIME AWARD FOR BEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 2024 A relentlessly fascinating and often jaw-dropping true story of two American women who unwittingly became Australia's 'Drug Grannies' In 1977, Vera 'Toddie' Hays and...

A land of almost 3 million square miles has lain since time immemorial on the southern flank of the planet, so isolated that it remained almost entirely outside of European knowledge until 1770. From there, however, the subjugation of Australia would take place rapidly. Within 20 years of the first British settlements being established, the British presence in Terra Australis was secure, and no other major power was likely to mount a challenge. In 1815, Napoleon would be defeated at Waterloo, and soon afterwards would be standing on the barren cliffs of Saint Helena.

A land of almost 3 million square miles has lain since time immemorial on the southern flank of the planet, so isolated that it remained entirely outside of European knowledge until 1770. However, the first human footprints on this vast territory were felt 70,000 years earlier. The history of the indigenous inhabitants of Australia is a complex. For generations after the arrival of whites in Australia, the Aboriginal people were disregarded and marginalized, largely because they offered little in the way of a labor resource, and they occupied land required for European settlement.

Established after World War I by the Royal Australian Navy, the Coast Watchers were a loose organisation of several hundred European settlers, missionaries, patrol officers and planters living in British and Australian Pacific Island territories whose job it was to observe and report on the...

For the 10 years after 1902, when Australia’s suffrage campaigners won the vote for white women, the world looked to this trailblazing young democracy for inspiration. Clare Wright’s epic new history tells the story of that victory - and of Australia’s role at the forefront of the subsequent international struggle - through the eyes of five remarkable players: the redoubtable Vida Goldstein, flamboyant Nellie Martel, indomitable Dora Montefiore, daring Muriel Matters and self-effacing artist Dora Meeson Coates....

With a Foreword by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Available once again for a new generation of readers, the third and final volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and...

“I love food” Nakkiah Lui says, and in the next breath whispers “so give us back our land”. In First Eat, a confrontational, raw and highly personal exploration of food politics, power and body sovereignty, Nakkiah Lui asks how our meals would look different if First Nations people owned the land from which the food came. First Eat is about more than just food, it’s an aural feast for a rich future.

From the annals of the RSL come these riveting true stories, written by a host of ordinary Australians - diggers, POWs, nurses, entertainers, sailors, airman and many more - that capture the impact of war on those who took part. With eyewitness accounts ranging from the Fall of Singapore to the Kokoda Track and from Europe to the Middle East, these stories bring the Australian experience of the Second World War to life with humour, pathos and vivid detail.

Legendary tennis player Billie Jean King details the remarkable history of women’s tennis in this stunning edition of Trailblazers: The Unmatched Story of Women's Tennis. In celebration of the Women’s Tennis Association’s 50th anniversary, this updated and expanded edition—based on the...

With a Foreword by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Available once again for a new generation, the first volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and the fulfillment of...

Miss Arabella Braithewaite of Switherby knows there is no future for the 10 orphans - a remarkable mix of genteel and working-class children - she has gathered together in these years of England’s grim factory growth in the early 1820s. Her plan, quite outrageous in the eyes of most, is to take the children to Australia to take up a land grant. Thus, one day the townsfolk gather to watch a line of departing “pilgrims” led by the fearless “Missabella”.

WINNER OF THE AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 we only need to tease out the first stray thread, such as the lingering wake left by a white ship forging through grey light to where a thousand seabirds disappear from the collapsing sky . . . and we've begun It is 1954, but not the same way the history...

I tell you, you meet some strange characters in this game.... Boasting the biggest beats in the world - some as large as France - Australia's outback police have seen it all: natural disasters, incredible acts of selflessness, unspeakable crimes and daring rescues, just to name a few. And they've met some unforgettable characters along the way: from the murderer who stuffed his victims' bodies down wombat holes to the policeman who arrested his own wife....

In 1999, Larry McMurtry, whose wanderlust had been previously restricted to the roads of America, set off for a trip to the paradise of Tahiti and the South Sea Islands in an old-fashioned tub of a cruise boat, at a time when his mother was slipping toward a paradise of her own. Opening up to...

From the bravery of Australia's sailors to the great age of rail, the resilience of the truckers crossing the Nullarbor to the daring aviation pioneers who turned the skies into a new frontier, Great Australian Odysseys is a rich tapestry of adventure and ingenuity, with a good dose of Aussie laughs. Journey through tales of hardy truckers braving isolation, mechanical mishaps and political battles. Navigate the high seas with our first submariners' record-breaking journeys and daring rescues...