A panicked Winston Churchill wrote: "Tobruk seems to be the place to be held to the death without thought of retirement...nothing must hamper the capture of Tobruk". In the dark heart of World War II, when Hitler turned his attentions to conquering North Africa, a distracted and far-flung Allied force could not give its all to the defence of the key city of Tobruk in Libya. So the job was left to the roughest, toughest bunch they could muster. "Tobruk" is the story of an incredible battle in excruciating desert heat through nine long months, against the might of Adolf Hitler's formidable Afrika Korps. This force's defence of Tobruk against the Afrika Korps' armoured division is one of the great battles of all time, yet rarely talked about. Drawing on extensive source material - including diaries and letters, some never published before - this extraordinary book is the definitive account of this remarkable battle. While Peter Fitzsimons is a celebrated historian, his popularity stems from his fantastic storytelling. "Tobruk" is written in a narrative style, putting the reader next to men such as General Leslie Morshead as he decides the fate of his men, next to men such as Jack Harris, as he stands in the blood of an injured mate. While detailed and well researched, "Tobruk" reads like a novel.

    It combines a brilliant overview of this immense conflict with telling detail, stories, letters and diaries that breathe life into those terrible battles of 90 years ago. In The Great War Carlyon has produced a masterpiece that takes the reader from the generals formulating strategy, to the troops fighting cold, filth and the terror of sudden death in their trenches.Written with the same narrative skill, humanity, vivid recreation and meticulous research that made Gallipoli a number one bestseller, Les Carlyon's astonishing new book is an epic that will stand as the lasting and definitive history of Australia's involvement in the Great War.

    A beautifully rendered time capsule, it captures a period of decay,turmoil and change through innocent unblinking eyes.

    The Australian continent stretched for another 2,000 kilometres to the north and 2,500 to the west and no white man had the slightest idea of what was there. It was to be the first of six expeditions mounted by Stuart, then aged 42, as he sought to uncover the mysteries of the interior and forge a path to the north.Ultimately he was to become part of a race across the continent, his rivals being the Burke and Wills expedition. In the end Stuart was to be the first European to cross Australia from south to north and return again, as the cumbersome expedition of Burke and Wills turned from farce to tragedy. Yet his hero's homecoming was to be shortlived. Mr Stuart's Track is a fascinating study of a loner, an explorer of no fixed abode, who battled alcoholism and ill-health to push himself to the limits of endurance in crossing straight through the red centre to the northern seas.

    After months of struggle, he learned how to resume his life as a farmer, running a sheep and cattle property in northwest New South Wales. then he met and fell in love with Jenny Black, an ABC Rural journalist, proposed to her on air, and the rest is history. Jenny tells Sam's story in his own laconic, wry style. By turns romantic, funny and moving, it affirms the strength of iron-willed determination and the power of love.

    

    It also takes the reader through the process of turning that research into living fiction - the false starts, dead ends and failures as well as the strokes of luck, flashes of inspiration and surprises.It contains sections of personal memoir, the record of the research, and a journal of the evolution of the book from non-fiction to novel. It quotes sections of early drafts and compares them with the final version, and goes into some detail about technical issues such as point of view, voice and dialogue.For anyone interested in the writing process - and in particular the writing of a historical novel - Searching for the Secret River provides a unique behind-the-scenes exploration.The Secret River has proved to be a controversial book among Australian historians. They feel that fiction is an untrustworthy mechanism by which to understand the past. A novelist may alter, simplify or even distort the truth about history in ways the reader will not be aware of.Kate Grenville has always had the same reservations about historical fiction. Even before The Secret River was completed, she was planning a book which would make transparent the process by which she'd adapted the historical record for the purposes of fiction, and her reasons for the decisions she made.She says "The subject matter of The Secret River is so important, and so politically charged, I didn't want readers to be able to say oh, it's only a novel - she just made it all up. The events and characters in the novel are adapted from the historical record. These things really did happen on our frontier, even if at a slightly different time and in a different place. I wanted readers to be able to retrace the journey I took in coming to terms with what I found about our history, and to see how I chose to adapt it for a novel."Twenty years of teaching Creative Writing in universities, and three books about the writing process, were the other impetus for Searching for The Secret River. "Writing is such an enrichment of life - whether or not it results in publication - that I wanted to leave a record of my own process, so that others might not have to re-invent the wheel completely," Grenville says. "Historical fiction has its particular challenges for the writer - I would have loved to read a book like this one while I was writing The Secret River. It would have made the process a little less laborious."Searching for the Secret River has become a classic for book groups, students and writers looking for guidance.

    In this unique journey into traditional Aboriginal life and culture, a European business-management professor and an Aboriginal elder collaborate to create a powerful and original model that western societies can use to build environmentally sustainable organizations, communities, and ecologies based upon the same Aboriginal traditions that allowed the Aborigines to create sustainable societies in very fragile landscapes.

    His methods are so at odds with conventional scientific wisdom that for 30 years he has been dismissed and ridiculed as a madman. He has faced bankruptcy and family break-up. But now, on the brink of ecological disaster, leading politicians, international scientists and businessmen are beating a path to his door as they grapple with how best to alleviate the affects of drought on the Australian landscape. Described as a man who reads and understands the Australian landscape better than most scientists, supporters of Peter Andrews claim he has done what no scientist ever thought to do — he has restored streams and wetlands to the way they were before European settlement interfered with them. The startling results of his natural sequence farming are said to have been achieved very cheaply, simply and quickly.

    We call it leaf litter, but it isn't really rubbish at all. Rachel Tonkin explores a small patch of leaf litter beneath one tree. Ages 6+.

    An entertainment complex is a neurotic condition suffered by people who get depressed if they don't get lots and lots of entertainment. Couldn't get into the oak room, the mahogany room, or the chipboard room, but got into the masonite room where people were betting on two blowflies crawling up a wall. The wall collapsed, so I lost my money. Should have backed the blowflies...'Wild Figments comprises pieces that have previously appeared in the Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Nation Review, or in various stage productions.

    Sasha and Olga were two survivors of progroms, mass starvation, Nazi slavery and Allied bombing among other atrocities. They were Displaced Persons who tried to find a new life in Australia. In this book their daughter tells their story and what happened when they tried unsuccessfully to put the past behind them. She returned to Ukraine to uncover the past and by a series of amazing coincidences found long lost relatives.

    Special colour features throughout the book explain unusual ingredients and give ideas for quick recipes.

    

    Addressing the true nature of this intriguing animal, this resource explores its evolutionary survival, the 23 living species in the world today, and the extinction they face due to habitat intrusion. Also explored are the myths and legends surrounding crocodiles and the vicious reputation they have amongst humans.

    A Thinking Reed spans his remarkable career, from a lonely childhood in Melbourne of the 1930s and 1940s to the fight he led against the death penalty to his crusade to make science and the future prominent issues on the political agenda. He has worked tirelessly on both a global and local scale to rethink education, to improve and preserve our heritage, to revive the nations's film industry, and to build a better Australia.Almost unique among politicians, Barry Jones is held in enormous public affection. And while he reveals many insights into the political process - both the problems of office and the atrophy of Opposition - he concentrates above all on the life of the mind; a mind with deep, passionate and often witty insights into history, philosophy, music and literature. A Thinking Reed is a generous gift from an extraordinary Australian.

    And it tells of the obsessive love of a man driven to any lengths to protect his family. But how much is he willing to sacrifice to escape from a past that won’t let go?

    Trapped by his shame, Flinch grows into manhood as a recluse, unable to move beyond the fatal event. His town’s economy and stability also suffer from its bloody history as the ocean’s turbulent waves become barren and unyielding. Only after crossing paths with Karma, a girl living in a commune in the hills, does Flinch begin a journey toward wholeness that communicates one man’s desire for redemption despite a sea of misfortune and hardship.

    This Welsh Arabian Nights takes the reader on a trip grounded in the history and literature of Wales, exploring the painful yet humorous reality and dreams of Duxie and Ollie as they encounter famous Welsh heroes and must learn to contend with the terrifying Mr. Cassini himself.

    Memee LavellHarvard and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell have brought together a multitude of voices to speak on the issues facing Aborigi- nal mothers in contemporary society. Beginning with an ex- amination of the experience of childbirth-the initiation into motherhood-the contributing authors illustrate its potential as a source of empowerment and revitalization for our nations. Through their own unique perspectives, the women bring us to an understanding of the variety of Aboriginal mothering prac- tices, the impacts of colonization and government legislation on Aboriginal mothers, and literary representations of Aborigi- nal mothering. Together, these women have worked to reveal not only the connection between the longstanding historical oppression experienced by Aboriginal women and the dire contemporary circumstances of many Aboriginal communities, but also the power of Aboriginal mothers to revitalize and transform our communities. They are truly the givers of new life.

    A quintessential Australian larrikin - whose biggest problem is that he isn't actually Australian. 19 year old Zeke was born in the Old Country but has been in Australia since he was six months old and considers himself as Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi as the next bloke. But due to a mix-up at the naturalisation ceremony (Zeke was in the pub when the rest of his family were getting their certificates and sprigs of wattle) and some unfortunate brushes with the law, Zeke finds himself awaiting deportation from Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre. So Zeke finds himself locked up with the other crims, asylum seekers, sex slaves, illegal workers and visa overstayers. He loves Marlena, She Who Loves, Honours and Obeys Most a the time Anyway, but he's having a hell of a time proving it from the wrong side of a double fence. His new friends the 'asylums' aren't doing so well either. Hamid loves Angel but she needs more than love. April thinks she loves Azad, but Azad thinks he loves April's daughter Marley. thomas loves anyplace but where he is. Everyone loves freedom. Not everyone gets it. Everyone wants to survive. Not everyone will.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Most of these black founders were originally slaves from America who had sought freedom with the British during the American Revolution only to find themselves abandoned and unemployed in England when the war was over. Pybus' stories include the notorious runaway 'Black Caesar', who became our first bushranger, and the wonderfully subversive Billie Blue, who was the first ferryman on Sydney Harbour, after whom Blues Point is named.

    When it was finally officially opened in March 1932, the Sydney Harbour Bridge had taken almost eight years to complete at a cost of more than six million pounds. This is the epic story of the most recognisable symbol of Sydney and Australia and the people who built it: their ambitions, political wrangling and incredible feats of engineering. Going behind the public face of the bridge, Peter Lalor recreates the intriguing characters who populate its history: Lennie Gwyther, the nine-year-old boy who made a 900-mile solo journey on horseback to see it, John Bradfield who eventually realised his dream of connecting Sydney's two shores, and Vince Kelly, the larger than life boilermaker who fell from the arch and survived and many more. From the bizarre attempt to sabotage the opening ceremony to the bridge's role in the Sydney Olympics, this is a lively history of one of the world's most famous structures.

    

    To avoid it to the eastward, pass the inner south head a cable's length from it, and when you open any part of the sandy beach of Camp Cove, haul short in for it until you bring the inner north head and inner south head on with each other; that mark will carry you up in five and six fathom: But if you cannot weather the reef, tack and stand into Camp Cove, which shoals gradually. If you pass to the westward of the reef, steer in for Middle Cape, which is steep too, then steer up for the next point above it on the same side; when you are that length, you may take what part of the channel you please, or anchor where you like. It flows Full and Change a quarter past eight. Rises 4 6 Neap Tide. Rises 6 0 Spring Tide. Plan of Port Jackson Chapter XV. Some Specimens of Animals from New South Wales. The great advantage of a scientific eye over that of the unlearned observer, in viewing the productions of nature, cannot be more strongly exemplified than by the present state of the natural history of Botany Bay, and its vicinity. The English who first visited this part of the coast, staid there only a week, but having among them persons deeply versed in the study of nature, produced an account, to which the present settlers, after a residence of near eleven months when the last dispatches were dated, have been able to add but very little of importance. The properties and relations of many...

    But an unforeseen tragedy leaves Joanna destitute and with no choice but to return to her childhood home, the Isle of Portland off the Dorset coast, a place which holds disturbing memories from Joanna's troubled past. Just as Joanna is starting to make a new life for herself and her young son, Toby, the past rises up to haunt her once again. Toby's grandfather, the dissolute Lord Durrington, has vowed to take the child and make him his heir -- whether Joanna agrees or not. And he's not the only sinister figure to emerge, determined to cause trouble. But in Joanna's darkest hour, a knight in shining armour will ride to her rescue -- and that knight is someone she least expects.

    They had come to fight the Turks. They thought the battle would be over in three days. Months later they were still in the trenches they'd dug at the landing. Anzac Cove became a graveyard where bodies lay above the ground and the living slept under it. They had gone looking for the adventure of a lifetime....a book for a young audience that corrects much of the starry-eyed jingoism but that will nevertheless leave its readers with pride and a warm glow on Anzac Day— Australian Book Review...tries to get beyond the dry facts and give a sense of how it was to be there, under fire, surrounded by corpses, rats and mud... an admirable starting point for young people wishing to peel back the veil of history— Sydney Morning Herald

    The Schoolmaster is hiding something behind his stern exterior, but she finds it difficult to believe her handsome employer is as bad as the rumours suggest.Uncover this dark mystery.However unsettling these tales are, Dianne has nowhere else to go and must find a way to uncover this dark mystery.A moving and suspenseful drama about secrets, loss and a woman who is not afraid to seek the truth.

    But where is their new home? And can the falcons face its many dangers and survive?