Richard Lane was one of three brothers who founded Penguin Books in 1935. But like all great stories, his life didn't start there. After sailing to Adelaide in 1922, Richard began work as a boy migrant - a farm apprentice living in rural South Australia as part of the 'Barwell Boys' scheme. In Australia, he deepened his appreciation for literature, and understood how important it was to make good writing widely accessible. Richard's diaries - the honest and moving words of a teenager, so very far away from home - capture vividly his life and loves; the characters he met; the land he worked; the families he depended on; and his coming of age in a new land. A remarkable social record and one of the best first-hand accounts of the child migrant experience, the diaries also capture the ideas and the entrepreneurship that led to the founding of the twentieth century's most famous publishing house. With a foreword by eminent Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey, Richard Lane's diaries are an important document for the history of rural Australia and global publishing 'One of the most revealing stories yet written about rural life in Australia.' Geoffrey Blainey

Rescuing endangered species, piloting choppers and coming nose-to-snout with some of Australia’s deadliest creatures is all in a day’s work for Matt Wright. With his mates by his side, Matt ventures into the outback and beyond, managing to get into (and, remarkably, out of) some insanely nail-biting situations. This new collection of adventures moves from his home in the Northern Territory to the jungles of Borneo to the rivers of the Congo. Follow Matt as he tracks down a monster croc in the Congo, relocates fifty saltwater crocodiles over state borders in the space of a few days, rescues elephants and orangutans (and two giant snakes) in Borneo and spends time at home with his pet crocodile Tripod, and gain some behind-the-scenes insights into the making of some of Outback Wrangler’s most intense moments. Told with wit, candour and a hit of adrenaline that makes you feel like you’re riding shotgun in Matt’s chopper, Outback Adventures is a ripping collection of unforgettable experiences from a remarkable Australian.

'From the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperbark trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendid- Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.' This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet as these properties are closed to visitors, few of us know what goes on behind the farm gate. So what's life really like when next door is 500 kilometres away, and mustering livestock in their tens of thousands, backbreaking physical labour, and dealing with extreme heat and long hours is all in a day's work? And why would these tough stockmen and women not have it any other way? Bestselling author Evan McHugh gets behind the wheel of his four-wheel drive to find out. Given special access to these properties, Evan goes behind the scenes at Adria Downs in the dead heart of Central Australia, helps drove cattle from the air at Wave Hill and gets a lesson in trapping dingoes at the remote Commonwealth Hill station. Following in the footsteps of the pioneering greats, Evan reveals the fascinating history of these outback stations, and what it takes to work on one today.

Birdsville is one of the most remote police postings in Australia. It can be lonely and uneventful for weeks, then the dramas come thick and fast: from desert rescues to rising floods, venomous vipers to visiting VIPs. Throw in heat, dust and flies and it’s not a job for the faint-hearted, unless you’re Senior Constable Neale McShane, who has single-handedly taken care of a beat the size of Victoria for the past ten years. Recently retired from this ‘hardship posting’, Neale and his family thrived on the adventures and colourful times that come with the territory in the furthest corner of our country. Yarning with friend and bestselling author Evan McHugh, Neale’s experiences are humorous and heartfelt. How do you feed 4000 unexpected dinner guests? Where do you find a Chinook helicopter when you need one? Who’s your backup when the population explodes for the famous Birdsville Races? And what do you do when you’re the person the Flying Doctor is flying out? Among these inspiring tales of danger and death, dreamers and ‘dumb tourists’, you’ll encounter a little community with a big heart that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a larger-than-life policeman who’s become part of Australia’s outback legend.

The Official Peppa Annual is the perfect Christmas gift for any Peppa fan. With three brand new stories, pictures to colour and activities to complete, there's plenty to entertain any little piggy!

The men and women you'll meet in this fascinating book come in all shapes and sizes, from convicts and engineers to cattleduffers and anthropologists. These remarkable Australians share an extraordinary ability to survive the rigours of the bush. In Outback Heroes, Evan McHugh brings together his favourite ripping yarns from the Australian frontier. He begins with escaped convict William Buckley, who emerged from the forest after thirty-two years in the wild; re-examines the legends of the Man from Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda; recounts one of the most stunning rescues in Australian history; and relives the 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony. These and other true stories of courage and ingenuity remind us how the Australian character was forged – through encounters with the bush, desert and outback.

Outback Midwife is the story of Beth McRae’s 40 years as a midwife, from her terrifying first day witnessing a birth as a naïve student nurse to her training as a midwife – the days when the words ‘birth plan’ were unheard of and what women wanted was a long way from being part of any plan – to the outback. Beth's career of catching babies takes her from the city to the bush, bonding with people from all walks of life at one of the most important moments in their lives. But there was one more frontier she was determined to conquer. At a time when most people are thinking about slowing down, Beth decides to move to a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land to embark on a whole other adventure.

The powerful true story of life with Rod Ansell, known by many as 'the original Crocodile Dundee'. Joanne van Os was just twenty-two when she met Rod Ansell. At twenty-three Rod was already a legend in Australia and around the world, having survived alone for two months without supplies in one of the harshest and most remote parts of northern Australia. To Joanne, Rod was a a genuine hero who could do anything, could make anything out of nothing, told the funniest yarns, had a philosophy on everything. She married him, and they had two beautiful sons who idolised their father. Together they lived the tough life of outback bull catchers and cattle musterers. But as time went on Joanne came to realise that Rod was both a complicated and deeply troubled man. For the sake of her sons she never gave up on Rod, even after their divorce, but just how far he'd gone only became apparent when his life ended in tragedy: out of his mind on drugs, Rod became involved in a shootout in which a young police office was killed. 'How does someone, whose extraordinary story of survival in the wild inspired so many Australians, become a psychotic, drug-crazed gunman?' Joanne asks. Outback Heart captures the Territory life on paper: the dust, the heat, the struggle and the larger-than-life characters. But it's also a deeply moving and powerful story of a love affair and a marriage, and the pain when it all falls apart. It's the story of Rod Ansell, but even more it is Joanne's story, of how a young, naive woman grows up the hard way, and has the most exhilarating and the most heartbreaking times doing it.

This book provides detailed information on the play 'Away', by Michael Gow, in the context of the specific requirements of the HSC. Contents include: - Detailed summary and analysis of the play - 'Physical Journeys' focus area - Background information about Michael Gow and the context of Australia in the 1960s - Analysis of characters and their physical journeys - Summary of key themes and issues.

Meet ‘Bill Bryson in Antarctica’ in this engaging book by one of the world's authority on penguins. Part memoir, partly the research of a field biologist, Professor Penguin could be called ‘How Penguins Shaped My Life’. Based on journals kept during Davis’s years of working with penguins in the wild, the story takes readers to remote locations: Antarctica, the Galapagos, the deserts of Chile and Peru, the Falkland Islands, the wild coasts of Argentina and South Africa, and New Zealand. Davis, a world authority on penguins, reveals that these box-office favourites are not the cute ‘mate for life’ animals we’ve been led to believe. He also reveals that penguins are a lot like humans — sometimes disturbingly so — when it comes to their basic needs: sex, food, shelter, marriage, family and travel. Over the years that Davis studies penguins, he realises that they are far more complex and nuanced than he imagines at his first encounter. 'They really don’t deserve to be seen as so black and white.’ He expertly marries scientific knowledge with his own anecdotes — told with humour, hard-earned knowledge and insight. He also includes stories about those who have helped advance our knowledge of penguins —other 'Professor Penguins'. Implicit throughout is Davis’s philosophy – the more we learn about the natural world, and specifically penguins, the more we learn about ourselves. And he asks: Is the isolation of Antarctica sufficient to protect penguins from us?