AustLit

Talkarra Press was a private press (AKA fine press) founded by Walter Stone, which he operated in a former shed at his home at 64 Young Street, Cremorne in Sydney. In 1951, Walter Stone acquired 'an Adano press, a quantity of type and registered the name Talkarra [Aboriginal word meaning 'stone' in the Arunta language] with the International register of International Press Names in New York and also in New South Wales'. (The Passionate Bibliophile, 115) Then, in 1953, he purchased a Chandler and Price treadle press from the estate of Hal Stone and later had a motor fitted to it. (115) Talkarra Press printed a range of invitations, cards, notices, poems and pamphlets, together with at least ten limited edition books. Among the single poems published by Talkarra Press was The Flour Bin by Henry Lawson, published by Talkarra Press in 1955 to mark the eleventh annual dinner of the Book Collectors' Society in Sydney. (241) Talkarra Press's final book, Nardoo and Pituri by R.G.H[owarth], was published in 1959. (Source: Jean Stone, The Passionate Bibliophile: The Story of Walter Stone, Australian Bookman Extraordinaire, North Ryde, NSW: Angus and Robertson, 1988.)