In re-imagining Australia's past, it invents a new future.' Richard Flanagan (cover endorsement) Van Diemen's Land is a new, groundbreaking history of the settlement of Tasmania. James Boyce's book is filled with new facts and new ideas about one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of British colonialism. Combining environmental insights with an unrivalled grasp of the politics of the frontier, it will change the way scholars and the general public alike view Australian colonial history.

    He was inexperienced and in a leaky raft, the weather was treacherous, and his travelling companion was someone he didn't know and who hated the place. But that eventful trip drew him into the historic battle to save the Franklin from being dammed. It was a struggle that brought down a federal government, and one whose ecological reverberations, twenty-five years on, are more commanding than ever.In The River Runs Free Geoff Law gives a lively and witty account of that flagship campaign, weaving it around stories of his wilderness travels. Drawn since childhood to wild places, he is an experienced solo bushwalker, one who can never resist a challenge. He writes powerfully about the connection between humans and landscape, the source of inspiration for his life's work. Travel with him and you never know what's coming next - but you'll arrive exhilarated.

    After marooning the crew, military guard, and passengers on the desolate shore, Swallow skillfully sailed the brig across the Pacific to Tahiti, then back to the Tongan Islands, and on to Japan before finally scuttling her off the Chinese coast. This epic of endurance was matched by the adventures of the people left behind in Recherche Bay. They were saved from starvation, not by their vacillating officers, but by an enterprising little cockney convict named John Pobjoy, who one year later would do his best to betray Swallow and his companions. Five of the Cyprus convicts, including Swallow, eventually made their way to London where they were recognized and put on trial for piracy at the Old Bailey. The chief witness against them was Pobjoy, who had turned up in England after receiving a pardon for his efforts in rescuing the castaways. In this book, author Warwick Hirst has written a fascinating account of a rogue whose undoubted leadership, determination, and resourcefulness might, in different circumstances, have led him to a far more favorable fate.