The British plan to settle Australia was a high-risk venture. We now take it for granted that the first colony was the basis of one of the most successful nations in the world today. But in truth, the New World of the 18th century was dotted with failed colonies, and New South Wales nearly joined them. The motley crew of unruly marines and bedraggled convicts who arrived at Botany Bay in 1788 in leaky boats nearly starved to death. They could easily...

Heroic, hilarious and sometimes just plain weird... Jim Eames shares great Qantas stories from World War II to the age of the jumbo and beyond. First published as the best-selling Courage in the Skies and The Flying Kangaroo From the challenges of its earliest days to the significant, but little-known involvement in Australia's World War II campaigns and its surge into the jet age and beyond, these are the stories of the men and women, the risk...

The story of the bombing of Darwin and the Japanese midget sub attack on Sydney Harbour in one volume from the bestselling author of An Awkward Truth and A Very Rude Awakening. 'Grose's compassionate, honest and vivid account deserves to be widely read.' Sun Herald on An Awkward Truth 'About as good as any yarn can get... a great retelling of a great story.' Sydney Morning Herald on A Very Rude Awakening Originally published as the best-selling...

After selling his start-up business, Sam has the kind of money only dreams are made of. Young, and married to the love of his life, it's time for Sam to enjoy his good fortune. That is, until Sam's Chief Financial Officer is taken hostage by a ruthless criminal demanding a document in his possession. A brutal murder follows, Sam is the prime suspect, and soon he and his wife, Lauren, are on the run from both the police and a faceless network of conspirators...

Rachel Kennedy stood out on a wild frontier dominated by men... her extraordinary and unputdownable pioneering story is told for the first time. Rachel Kennedy was a colonial folk hero. Born in the wild and remote Warrumbungle mountains of western New South Wales in 1845, she was described by Duke Tritton of ‘The Bulletin” as Australia's greatest pioneer woman of them all. Rachel caught brumbies, hid bushrangers, went to war with squatter kings,...

Thomas Keneally's widely acclaimed three volume history of the Australian people from origins to Vietnam gave us a robust, vibrant and page-turning narrative that brought to life the vast range of characters who have formed the Australian national story. Here these volumes are brought together for a story that encompasses original Australians and European occupation of their land, the convict era, pastoralists, bushrangers and gold seekers, working...

Australia's Spies and their Secrets tells the inside story of the rise and fall of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) - Australia's premier spy body. Based on thousands of documents never before revealed, along with interviews with over thirty former ASIO officers and many of those spied upon, this fascinating book exposes the secret dimensions of Australia's post-war politics and history. It is certain to provoke debate and...

Drawing on interviews, submissions to the Senate Inquiry, and personal experience, this revealing documentation describes, for the first time, the experience of Forgotten Australians from the perspective of the survivors. In August 2004, Parliamentary senators wept as they presented the report from the Senate Inquiry into the treatment of children in care. Half a million children grew up in "care" in 20th-century Australia, and most often these children...

A mix of short stories and commentaries-some whimsical, some grim-this work of creative conjecture offers a perceptive and positive new slant on significant New Zealand events and personalities. With a modest degree of adjustment, this compilation examines what if" scenarios ranging from the historical and literary to the athletic and offers alternative conclusions. Altering the lives of Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand's most famous writer, and national...

'The homosexual is essential to the sexual revolution; there can be no revolution, no liberation, without us.' Australia's Gay Liberation movement arose at a time, when revolution was in the air and gays, wanted to be part of it. It was the Left, which had a theory and practice of revolution, Marxism. But, it is often asserted that the Left was backward and even hostile, that Marxism had no tradition of dealing with sexual oppression. This book challenges...