'The master of the Australia historical blockbuster'. DAILY TELEGRAPH Daniel Johnson and Matthew Conway are currency lads – born and bred in the new land now being called Australia. Closer than brothers, they harbour a secret that binds them for life. But change is coming. When the British government resolves to turn back the clock and renew convict transportation, Daniel and Matthew find themselves on opposite sides of a fierce conflict that threatens to tear their friendship apart. Set in the bustling maritime world of 1830s Sydney, and spanning two decades, this is an unforgettable novel of loyalty and love that captures the spirit and energy of early Australia. 'A ripping great yarn, featuring characters with depth and storylines to match.' WEEKENDER 'Combines the facts of a turbulent part of Australia's history with a moving and often riveting fictional narrative.' GOLD COAST BULLETIN

This beautifully written, absorbing and thoughtful book tells the story of the first white Australians. Born before 1850. Most were the children of convicts. They had no access to land and no education, and free settlers generally treated them with contempt, as second-rate citizens.

The idea of an Australian republic has existed from the moment the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour. This book is a comprehensive history of republican thought and activity in Australia and traces republican debate in Australia from 1788. It explains the pivotal role played by republican philosophies in the decades before responsible government was granted to the Australian colonies in 1856 and prior to federation in 1901. Mark McKenna also describes the often erratic appearance of republicanism during the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the period after 1975, when the issue of a republic became a prominent and increasingly fixed term on the political agenda. This book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in political and intellectual history. It calls for a higher level of public debate about the republic and makes an outstanding contribution to this debate itself.

Do you know what a Vic-wit is? Have you ever had a nibble pie? Now in it's third edition, The Dinkum Dictionary, is even better than ever. This fascinating book describes the origins and usage of words ranging from 'mulga' to 'anzac', from 'furphy' to 'blue', and this edition includes even more words and terms. Butler reveals little-known facts about our ways of communicating with each other. She examines the diverse range of influences that have coloured our language, indigenous & non-indigenous, revealing the richness of Australia's culture.

The Port Arthur convict photographs are a truly remarkable survival from Australias colonial past. Taken shortly before the infamous Tasmanian penal settlement closed for good, these images record the faces of men sent to Australia on convict ships between the 1820s and the 1850s. Now, for the first time, they are the subject of a fascinating new book from the National Library of Australia. Through its pages readers will come face to face with some of Australias reluctant pioneers and explore their often extraordinary lives. Using transportation records, trial documents, offi cial correspondence, prison files, local and overseas newspaper reports and eyewitness accounts, the author has pieced together biographies of some of the men and their female partners who found themselves transported to the colonies.

Thomas Wentworth Wills is an Australian Icarus. Having grown up among the Djabwurring people in western Victoria, he was sent to the Rugby school in England. Returning in 1856, he promptly revolutionised colonial cricket and opened the door for the evolution of the indigenous game we know as Australian football. In 1866, he coached the Aboriginal team which later became the first Australian cricket team to tour England, despite having suffered in the war being fought at the country's frontiers between white settlers and the land's Aboriginal inhabitants. Tom Wills died a neglected and forgotten figure. His life is an Australian tragedy, but it bequeathed to the nation a unique and hopeful legacy. A wonderful novel - tragic story of genius and loss, of a man who, leaping at the sun, fell down in a dazzle of healing light. - Brian Matthews The Footy field: ground of coexistence; common ground; sacred turf. It is the one piece of Australian earth where equality rules and the game is played fair. It's footy. No-one barracks for the extinguishment of this game. Like a stab pass to a leading full-forward, Flanagan shows us the way to our goal. - Patrick Dodson

In this side-splitting sequel to his best-selling history, David Hunt takes us to the Australian frontier. This was the Wild South, home to hardy pioneers, gun-slinging bushrangers, directionally challenged explorers, nervous indigenous people, Caroline Chisholm and sheep. Lots of sheep. First there was Girt. Now comes . . . True Girt True Girt introduces Thomas Davey, the hard-drinking Tasmanian governor who invented the Blow My Skull cocktail, and Captain Moonlite, Australia's most famous LGBTI bushranger. Meet William Nicholson, the Melbourne hipster who gave Australia the steam-powered coffee roaster and the world the secret ballot. And say hello to Harry, the first camel used in Australian exploration, who shot dead his owner, the explorer John Horrocks. Learn how Truganini's death inspired the Martian invasion of Earth. Discover the role of Hall and Oates in the Myall Creek Massacre. And be reminded why you should never ever smoke with the Wild Colonial Boy and Mad Dan Morgan. If Manning Clark and Bill Bryson were left on a desert island with only one pen, they would write True Girt. 'An engaging, witty and utterly irreverent take on Australian history.' —Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project 'Astounding, gruesome and frequently hilarious, True Girt is riveting from beginning to end.' —Nick Earls

In the early 1800s the Great Australian Unknown would be slowly revealed, in part by formal government expeditions, but also by runaway convicts, little known and privately funded explorers, and pastoralists seeking both knowledge of what lay beyond and land to occupy. Through extensive research, and with engaging storytelling, The Other Side of the Mountain brings three of these men’s stories together into a single enthralling narrative: Ralph Entwistle, runaway convict and bushranger who led a brief and briefly successful rebellion against the brutality of the convict system on the fringes of New South Wales’ western plains; John Horrocks, an English textiles magnate who brought most of his village from the north of England to Adelaide and beyond, and who was the first to explore Australia’s parched interior by camel - a decision that cost him his life; and Horace Wills, a printer, rebel, overlander, pastoralist and politician who gave up everything to push the frontier back in the far north of the continent. While our history books recount the momentous advances made when Europeans spread across the continent, the stories of Ralph Entwistle, John Horrocks and Horace Wills are a reminder that those advances were almost always built on smaller endeavours, often made by people whose names we rarely hear today but whose impacts were often of the greatest significance.