Australasian History

From award-winning author and historian Janet McCalman, the engrossing tale of Tasmanian convict settlers in colonial Victoria It was meant to be 'Victoria the Free', uncontaminated by the Convict Stain....

Menzies impact on Australian policy revolution Was Menzies's unprecedented electoral success merely a matter of luck, or did he make fortune bend to his will? On 30 November 1954, Robert...

Yarra Birrarung- Artists, Writers and the River is an illustrated history of life on the Yarra. Yarra Birrarung- Artists, Writers and the River is an illustrated history of life on...

An immersive journey through the tumultuous past and fascinating present of Australia's nearest neighbours "We are the original people of the region ... This is a black region, it's not...

The gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent...

A must-read biography of an enigmatic personality who helped shape early Melbourne Madame Brussels, the most legendary brothel keeper in nineteenth-century Melbourne, is still remembered and celebrated today. But until...

A curated collection of essays that shaped Australia's culture and society Since the 1940s, Meanjin essays have set the national cultural agenda. Arthur Phillips' idea of 'cultural cringe' has become...

How are we to live well with others? How can we sustain abundant environments and nourishing cultures? How might connections to place and generations past strengthen our cultural, political and...

Compelling, groundbreaking and brilliantly readable, The Story of Australia's People- The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia is the first instalment of an ambitious two-part work, and the culmination of...

The much-anticipated second instalment of Geoffrey Blainey's history of Australia's people - his most ambitious work to date - that completes Australia's story from the Gold Rush to the present...

A striking and compelling book reclaiming history by a renowned Indigenous visual artist. In this groundbreaking work of Indigenous scholarship, nationally renowned visual artist Fiona Foley addresses the inherent silences,...

An evocative narrative of the many tragedies that fell upon those who were forced to serve time in Port Arthur, one of the most remote and feared convict locations in...

A broad, concise and inclusive vision of Australia and Australians by one our most renowned historians A broad, concise and inclusive vision of Australia and Australians by one our most...

The Birth of Sydney tells the story of the founding of one of the world's greatest cities. Tim Flannery's brilliant anthology reveals Sydney's strange and secret life from its unruly...

An extraordinary narrative history of the First Fleet, by the bestselling author of The Forgotten Children. Never before or since has there been an experiment quite as bold as this....

A magical, substantially true narrative of piracy, zoology, anthropology, danger and adventure in the seventeenth-century Caribbean, Pacific and East Indies The first great English-language travel book, A New Voyage Round...

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Fascinatingly imaginative popular history.' Sydney Morning Herald On 25 April 1915, Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in present-day Turkey to secure the sea route between...

In the Trenches of Hell. The story of the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front. THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers -...

'An extraordinarily vivid yet authentic account of the birthpangs of a nation. A work of real distinction' Philip Ziegler An award-winning epic on the birth of Australia In 1787, the...

The fever that forever changed Australia The fever that forever changed Australia. David Hill relates the extraordinary people and staggering events of Australia's great gold-rush years. From the mid- to...

This is the story of how a struggling convict settlement grew into six dynamic colonies and then the remarkable nation of Australia. Told through the key figures who helped build...

An extraordinary piece of history - the Scottish Highlanders on the frontier of Australia - with introduction from Inga Clendinnen. An extraordinary piece of history - the Scottish Highlanders on...

A brilliant recreation of the first four years of white settlement in Australia by Booker Prize-winning author Tom Keneally. A brilliant recreation of the first four years of white settlement...

First published in two-volumes in 1814, this is the enthralling account of the circumnavigation of Australia, by the man who gave our country its name. Edited and introduced by Tim...

I have been wronged and my mother and four or five men lagged innocent and is my brothers and sisters and my mother not to be pitied also who has...

Wills knew that he was fading fastest. On 26 June, he decided the only honourable thing to do was to sacrifice himself to save his companions. 'Without some change,' he...

'A loving history of the Australian people' - Sydney Morning Herald '...displays historical literacy, and plenty of humanity, empathy and compassion, all qualities rare in our public culture to be...

'Roland Perry shows the true picture . . . enjoyable, clearly argued, comprehensive, and highly readable.' - Michael McKernan, Australian Book Review 11 March 1942: The Japanese have stormed the...

'Aussies love a good story and entertainer Jim Haynes has been telling them for decades' - Courier-Mail In Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia , our master storyteller Jim...

'In the only war in which Australian soldiers ever faced off against the might of Mao, this is a revealing and spellbinding account of an extraordinary victory.' - Peter FitzSimons...

Shortlisted for The Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award 2023 Wreathed in morning mist, the rainforest is a place where evolution and legend rule. Where the thunderbird...

Shortlisted for the 2023 Danger Awards He lurched through the gun smoke, his head encased in an iron helmet, and started shooting. To the weary police in the cordon around...

Ninety years on from its opening in 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge remains the most recognisable symbol of Australia. The iconic arch took almost nine years to complete - at...

'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...

Winner of The Age Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award 1998 Shortlisted for Best Australian History Book in the NSW Premier's History Awards 1998 In 1920, 26 men and women...

'An astonishing story of lust and love in early colonial Australia, shocking, entrancing and utterly enthralling.' - Sue Williams, author of Elizabeth and Elizabeth Born on Norfolk Island to First...

From First Nations gunyahs and First Fleet huts to 21st century eco-pavilions and skyscrapers, Davina Jackson surveys the evolution of architecture in Australia. Dr Jackson explores how early colonial building...

'Deeply researched with keen judgements, Traitors and Spies is a devastating indictment of Australia's security services and their political masters in the decades before the formation of ASIO.' - Professor...

'A wonderful book that tells a remarkable and heroic story.' AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR ANGUS HOUSTON AK, AFC (RET'D) The choking, chest-tightening feeling of being trapped in a burning Lancaster,...

'We have decided we must have the 747.' - Bert Ritchie, Qantas Chief Executive, 1967 From its first Qantas flight in 1971, the Boeing 747 flew millions of people to...

In March 1945 Reg Cleworth, a navigator on PBY Catalina seaplanes flying out of Darwin, went missing in action. No details were ever given about the incident that took his...

Australia was born with its eyes wide open. Although politicians spoke publicly of loyalty to Britain and the empire, in secret they immediately set about protecting Australia's interests from the...

Between 1942 and 1943, Qantas lost eight aircraft during its involvement in Australia's war against the Japanese. Over sixty passengers and crew died as a result. Yet Qantas' exemplary contribution...

Shortlisted for the Society of Women Writers NSW Book Awards Esther only just escaped the hangman in London. Aged 16, she stood trial at the Old Bailey for stealing 24...

The Original Australians tells the story of Australian Indigenous history and society from its distant beginnings to the present day. From the wisdom and paintings of the Dreamtime to the...

The Cold War between the West and the Soviet Bloc didn't end with detente in 1975: it just went underground. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, tensions...

'Grose's compassionate, honest and vivid account . deserves to be widely read.'- Sun-Herald The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 is the battle Australia tries to forget. Although there...

By 1963, Robert Menzies had been prime minister for thirteen years, Australia had its first troops in Vietnam, and change was in the air. There would soon be street protests...