This is the story of Victor Poxon and time in the Royal Navy during the Second World War on HMS Aurora and his life in Australia in the 1960s and 70s.

The authors draw upon a rich life history archive of letters, diaries, personal photographs and oral history interviews with former migrants, including those who settled in Australia and those who returned to Britain. They offer original interpretations of key historical themes, including motivations for emigration; gender relations and the family dynamics of migration; the 'very familiar and awfully strange' confrontation with the new world; the anguish of homesickness and return; and the personal and national identities of both settlers and returnees, fifty years on. --book cover.

"Come to sunny Australia for £10!" Who could resist such an invitation? Certainly not newly-weds Sandra and Geoff, who were just two of the thousands of migrants leaving the UK in the sixties and seventies to travel to the other side of the world to begin a new life in Australia, full of high hopes and expectations. Follow their journey from Leicester in the Midlands to Perth in Western Australia, sailing from Southampton via Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Cape Town in South Africa, and then overland from Perth to Melbourne in the State of Victoria. Their journey began in Southampton in December 1967 - a 25-day voyage aboard the migrant ship 'Fairstar', with cramped sleeping quarters, but good food and entertainment, and the chance to make life-long friends. Follow their struggle to find work and a permanent home to raise a family, while learning about the places they lived and the people they met in Australia. Share in their joys and sorrows, and read of the reasons for their difficult decision to return to Britain ten years later.

Holden is one of the few brands that has an emotional grip on Australia (Qantas being another). The closure of the Holden factory in Adelaide is not just the end of a business - it's the end of an era, of a story, and of a great Australian dream. When Holden signalled that it would close its Adelaide factory, it struck at the very heart of Australian identity. Holden is our car made on our shores. It's the choice of patriotic rev heads and suburban drivers alike. How could a car that was so beloved - and so popular - be so unprofitable to make? The story of the collapse of Holden is about the people who make and drive the cars; it's about sustaining industry in Australia; it's about communities of workers and what happens when the work dries up. And if it's not quite about the death of an icon - because Holdens will remain on Australian roads for a long time to come - then it's about what happens when an icon falls to knees in front of a whole nation. 'Brilliant and powerful' Nick Xenophon

Born in the middle of the second world war, Mike recounts his journey, the philosophies he has studied, the insights that have come to him, and the inspiring conclusions he has come to.

In The Death and Life of Australian Soccer, journalist and historian Joe Gorman explores the rise and fall of Australia's first national football competition and shows how soccer came to practice and embody multiculturalism long before it became government policy. Drawing on archival research and interviews with players, supporters and club officials, he tells the incredible and oft-unknown stories of Australian soccer. The Death and Life of Australian Soccer is a fascinating and timely account of the first Australian sport to truly galvanize every ethnic, regional, metropolitan, gender and political group across the country. It examines the myths and legends of Australian sport and offers new ways of understanding the great changes that shaped the nation. This is more than a book about soccer – it is the riveting story of Australia's national identity.

In Alice Springs, the heart of Australia, Constable Elizabeth West of the Territory Police is being interviewed for a promotion, it is an interview like no other. There is a drive by shooting, a double suicide, a shot is fired as a boy tries to protect his mother, West is shot at by a gang of bikies, a woman goes missing and West is abducted by a ruthless killer! Where is Detective Bigfoot? Will he arrive in time?

Bill Guy's biography of Labor legend Clyde Cameron takes the reader from shearing shed to cabinet room, telling the story of the Australian 'left', it's history and its challenges for the future. Cameron's life spans four-fifths of the ALP's history and many of the great political events of Australia since World War II.

Between 1921 and 1965 Irish and Scottish migrants continued to seek new homes abroad. Using the personal accounts of these migrants from letters, interviews, questionnaires, and shipboard journals, together with more traditional documentary sources such as immigration files and maritime records, this book examines the experience of migration and settlement in North America and Australasia. Through a close reading of personal testimonies the author highlights the assorted similarities and differences between the Irish and Scots. Subtle differences rather than yawning cultural gaps are apparent; similarities in attitude and expectation are more common than divergent or unique experiences. The key revelation of the work is that, despite a number of peculiarities characterising their individual and collective experiences of migration, both the Irish and Scots were relatively successful migrants in the period under consideration. Using interviews, both spoken and written, and tackling issues of why and how versions of the past are represented and what they mean, this fascinating study considers individual and collective memory and the use of personal testimonies as historical evidence: their uniqueness and typicality. Furthermore, in using personal narratives the book portrays individual migration experiences which are often hidden in studies based on statistical analysis.