Dr John Woodforde and six parrot puddings is a fascinating and authoritative account of the ‘founding’ and survey of South Australia, from the landing at Rapid Bay to the formation of Adelaide, as recounted through the diaries of not only Dr John Woodforde, colonial surgeon, but also Dr George Mayo and Colonel William Light. The book looks at the first…
As a child, Roy McFadyen was placed in Melbourne oprhanages for his parents' convenience. At 15, and in the middle of the Great Depression, he was thrown out of home by his mother into a freezing winter's night and made an epic bicycle ride into the Mallee to become a wheat farmer's labourer. Seeking further consolation in hard work well…
This is Yami Lester's story. From the heart of the Western Desert, Yami tells of his early years learning the country and the Law from the Ones Who Know. Of his years as a stockman, learnibng his trade on the vast, unfenced cattle stations of the Centre, and of his years living in the world of the white people.
'They called me the versatile man,' Don Ross recalls. 'I put up windmilkls, fixed the trucks; I only had to see a thing done once and I could do it. That's how I was.' 'I've done some mongrel jobs,' he admits, and the worst? 'Shifting bloody c attle. Walking them when it's hot and there's a long way to go…
A nephew of Albert Namatjira, Wenten was encouraged by him to paint when he was a young man. An Arrernte man who has made a major contribution to the art and politics of his time, Wenten was a key figure in the land rights movement in Central Australia in the mid-1970s and has since played a lively and formative role…
Take Power like this old man here is an anthology celebrating twenty years of land rights in Central Australia, 1977-1997. 'Gough Whitlam pours a handful of soil into the open palm of Vincent Lingiari. After ten years of struggle, the Gurindji people have won title to their traditional lands.' 'The following year the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) 1976 is…
Loves Creek Station is one of the earliest pastoral leases in Central Australia, and once covered near 4000 sq km. Gidgee and Grit traces the history of the region from geological beginnings and Aboriginal culture to the early explorers like John McDouall Stuart, and construction of the Overland Telegraph line. Also included is the story of the early pioneers like the…