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Includes
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1y Sowers of the Wind : A Novel of the Occupation of Japan Sowers of the Wind Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1954 Z151442 1954 single work novel war literature Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961
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5y Coonardoo : The Well in the Shadow 1928 Z1081769 1928 single work novel (taught in 39 units) Set in North-West of Western Australia, it describes life on cattle stations and the relationship between the white owner of the station and Coonardoo, an Aboriginal woman. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961
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10y The Sands of Windee Z1515870 1931 single work novel crime detective
'An Inspector Bonaparte Mystery featuring Bony, the first Aboriginal detective. Why had Luke Marks driven specially out to Windee? Had he been murdered or had he,as the local police believed, wandered away from his car and been overwhelmed in a dust-storm? When Bony noticed something odd in the background of a police photograph, he begins to piece together the secrets of the sands of Windee. Here is the original background to the infamous Snowy Rowles murder trial.'
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961 -
36y Death of a Swagman New York (City) : Doubleday , 1945 Z258342 1945 single work novel crime detective mystery
'Merino is an isolated town in New South Wales. Posing as a laborer, Bony goes there to investigate the murder of a vagrant and soon discovers a murderous tangle of motives and suspects. There are some very engaging characters and some excellent trakcing scenes leading to a suspenseful finish.'(Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1964 -
45y Into the Sun : A Blue Hills Novel Blue Hills in the Sun : a Blue Hills novel Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1961 Z1292451 1961 single work novel At Oolera, an isolated township in Central Australia, Sister Heather Jamieson of the A.I.M. answers a radio call for help from an injured stockman on Cooper Downs Station. There she is soon crossing swords with the owner, Ric Carson, who, accepting hardships for himself, invites no woman to share them. This warmly realistic novel gives a vivid picture of life in the Inland and of its impact on the British migrant who is a vital element in the Australian scene today. (Half-title page of Into the Sun) Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
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62y No Moon Tonight Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1956 Z242793 1956 single work autobiography war literature Don Charlwood, a wartime navigator with the Royal Australian Air Force, was posted in the winter of 1942 to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds, Lincolnshire. Here he tells the breath-taking true story of a wartime bomber crew facing the hazards of bombing strongly defended targets such as Essen, Dusseldorf and Berlin, and writes sympathetically and understandingly of the hopes and fears of the crews as squadron losses mounted. Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1956
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71y The Devil's Steps New York (City) : Doubleday , 1946 Z1174558 1946 single work novel detective Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967
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76y The Battlers London : Gollancz , 1941 Z250421 1941 single work novel (taught in 1 units)
'The flowers flared up from the ground unconquerable. The unrepentant gaiety of the weed, the burning blues and crimsons, set the hills glowing.
''It's a plant that's struck it lucky,' the Stray said thoughtfully. 'It hasn't got no right, but it's there.'
'The Battlers is the story of Snow, a drifter and wanderer, the waiflike Dancy the Stray, from the slums of Sydney, and the other outcasts who accompany them as they travel the country roads looking for work. Like the weed Patterson's Curse, they 'haven't got no right', but they are there. Based on her own experiences of life on the roads in the 1930s, Tennant tells the story of the motley crowd of travellers with compassion and humour. First published in 1941, The Battlers was awarded the Gold Medal of the Australian Literature Society and shared the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize. More than seventy years later, the book's message of survival against the odds is as relevant today as it was then. ' (Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967 -
y
My Love Must Wait : The Story of Matthew Flinders
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1941
Z843543
1941
single work
novel
historical fiction
'When Matthew Flinders, the first man to chart and circumnavigate Australia, set sail from England in July 1801, he left behind the intrigues of his homeland but also his young bride of only a few weeks, Ann Chappell. He didn't see her again for more than nine years. During that time he carried out incredible feats of seamanship and navigation, made the first charts of much of the coastline of Australia, and was shipwrecked and later held prisoner by the French on Mauritius.
'Meticulously researched and written with great insight and sensitivity, My Love Must Wait is both a tender portrayal of faithful devotion, and a stirring re-creation of the courage and endurance of one of history's greatest seamen. ' (Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961 -
y
The Cattle King : The Story of Sir Sidney Kidman
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1936
Z1095091
1936
single work
biography
'At the age of 13 Sidney Kidman ran away from home with only five shillings in his pocket. He went on to become a horse dealer, drover, cattle buyer and bush jockey and he also ran a coach business. Above all, Kidman created a mighty cattle empire of more than a hundred stations, fighting droughts, bushfires, floods and plagues of vermin to do so. His enterprise and courage won him a huge fortune and made him a legend. ' (Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961 - y Blue Hills Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1950 Z182689 1950 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961
- y On Our Selection, and, Our New Selection Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1953 Z228834 1953 selected work short story humour Publishers note indicates this compilation is based on the NSW Bookstall Company's editions of 1909. These comprised fewer stories than the first editions. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961
- y The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961 Z1472898 1961 selected work poetry Different compilation from 1895 selection of the same title. Comprises poems from several Paterson selections. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1961
- y Drums of Mer Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1933 Z105236 1933 single work novel historical fiction Sydney : Pacific Books , 1962
- y Ralph Rashleigh, or, The Life of an Exile London : Jonathan Cape , 1929 Z869379 1929 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1962
- y Sammy Anderson : Commercial Traveller Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1959 Z183253 1959 single work novel humour Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1962
- y Winds of Evil 1937 single work novel crime Sydney : Pacific Books , 1963
- y Pink Flannel Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1955 Z91192 1955 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1963
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y
Gallows on the Sand : A Novel
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1956
Z527948
1956
single work
novel
'Twenty chests of minted Spanish gold in a sunken galleon—this is the lure that brings historian Renn Lundigan to a tiny island off Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
'Renn enlists islander Johnny Akimoto to teach him scuba diving, but soon realises there's a far greater danger in the reef than the sharks. Gambling den owner Manny Mannix has followed him to the island, and now he threatens not only Renn and Johnny, but also the beautiful young scientist Pat Mitchell.
'Gallows on the Sand is a fast-paced story of high adventure, with the rich characterisation that made Morris West one of the bestselling writers of his day.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Allen & Unwin, 2017).
Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1963 - y Gold-Dust and Ashes : The Romantic Story of the New Guinea Goldfields Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1933 Z114043 1933 single work prose Sydney : Pacific Books , 1964
- y Beyond Blue Hills : The Ternna-Boolla Story Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1953 Z1062941 1953 single work novel Taken from the famous ABC Country Hour radio serial, Blue Hills, this novel takes the story a stage further to the coming of Ted and Emmie Lawson to Ternna-Boola and Nahweenah, to their first taste of sheep-station life in the back country, and to the ugly fact of colour prejudice. (Publisher's blurb) Sydney : Pacific Books , 1964
- y Sandy's Selection and Back at Our Selection Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1957 Z123151 1957 selected work short story humour Sydney : Pacific Books , 1964
- y Flynn of the Inland Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1932 Z201072 1932 single work biography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
- y The Wild White Man of Badu : A Story of the Coral Sea Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1950 Z105033 1950 single work novel historical fiction Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
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y
The Red Chief : As Told by the Last of his Tribe
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1953
Z105445
1953
single work
autobiography
Indigenous story
Young warrior Red Kangaroo, by his mental and physical prowess, becomes a chief of his tribe - the revered and powerful Red Chief of the Gunnedah district. His story is handed down from generation to generation by its hero's tribe and given by the last survivor, Bungaree, to the white settlers of the district.
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965 - y My Mate Dick Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1962 Z1097976 1962 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
- y The Irishman : A Novel of Northern Australia Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1960 Z221081 1960 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
- y Mr Jelly's Business 1932 Z1369404 1932 single work novel crime Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965
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y
Bushranger of the Skies
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1940
Z849009
1940
single work
novel
crime
detective
'An extraordinary case for Detective-Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte opens when a police car is bombed from the air on a lonely outback road by a mysterious pilot who plans to conquer a nation.
'The trail through the land of burning waters tests Bonys endurance to the limit and takes the detective as close to death as he has ever been. Welcome to Central Australia!' (Publication summary) Sydney : Pacific Books , 1965 - y In Crocodile Land : Wandering in Northern Australia Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1946 Z848787 1946 single work biography travel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1966
- y While the Billy Boils Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1896 Z822461 1896 selected work short story Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1966-1967
- y Keep Him My Country London : Constable , 1955 Z419406 1955 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1966
- y The Ridge and the River : A Novel Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1952 Z869333 1952 single work novel war literature A novel based on the author's experiences while serving with the 2/8 Australian Commando Squadron in New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville during World War II. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1966
- y The Pacific Book of Bush Ballads Douglas Stewart (editor), Nancy Keesing (editor), Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967 Z385274 1967 anthology poetry Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967
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y
All the Green Year
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1965
Z242695
1965
single work
novel
'It was the end of an era; a year of ‘outlandish happenings’; a time when everything seemed to change for Charlie Reeve, a daydreaming lad growing up in a small town on the Mornington Peninsula.
'His teacher and dad are giving him a hard time, his neighbour Squid keeps getting him into trouble, and his best mate Johnno is busy seeing a girl—which leads Charlie to a nasty fight with Big Simmons.
'First published in 1965, and subsequently made into a popular ABC TV series, All the Green Year is the story of a boy’s journey towards adulthood—‘not only the humour of it but its drama and pain’, as the 96-year-old Don Charlwood writes in his revised afterword.
'This Text Classics edition of one of Australia’s most loved coming-of-age novels comes with a new introduction by Michael McGirr, author of the bestseller Things You Get for Free. (Publication summary : Text Classics)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967 -
y
Jonah
London
:
Methuen
,
1911
Z823874
1911
single work
novel
(taught in 1 units)
'Jonah, born a hunchback, is feared and revered in equal measure as the ruthless leader of the Push, a violent gang that terrorises the slums of Waterloo. Chook, a fellow member of the Push, is Jonah's loyal best friend. But after a chance encounter with his son, the result of a casual affair, Jonah decides to abandon the larrikin life and settle down. He marries Ada, the mother of his child, and takes advantage of an opportunity to open his own business. Chook, too, leaves the Push and finds love in the arms of factory worker, Pinkey. But can either man escape his awful past?'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Text Publishing edition).
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967 - y One Wet Season One Wet Season : A Saga of the Great North West Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1949 Z843721 1949 single work prose travel Stories of the West Kimberley District, Western Australia. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967
- y The Time of the Peacock : Stories New York (City) : Roy Publishers , 1965 Z519582 1965 selected work short story Most of the twelve stories in the collection are narrated by the small Indian girl, Nimmie, who weaves together the sometimes happy, sometimes sad, strands of a mixed Moslem and Hindu Indian-Australian home community in near physical isolation from city or town life. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1967
- y Softly Tread the Brave : A Triumph Over Terror, Devilry, and Death by Mine Disposal Officers John Stuart Mould,G.C.,G.M., and Hugh Randal Syme, G.C., G.M. and Bar Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1960 Z561248 1960 single work biography war literature Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967
- y The Great Australian Loneliness Ports of Sunset; Australian Frontier London : Jarrold , 1937 Z280800 1937 single work autobiography travel An account of the author's five years of travel through the outback, from Adelaide to Darwin on the Birdsville Track, to the Red Centre and Arnhem Land. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1968
- y Lightning Ridge : The Land of Black Opals Lightning Ridge Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1940 Z140883 1940 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1968
- y Henry Lawson's Humorous Stories Humorous Stories of Henry Lawson Cecil Mann , North Ryde : Angus and Robertson , 1967 Z387803 1967 selected work short story humour Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1968
- y An Author Bites the Dust Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1948 Z62594 1948 single work novel crime mystery detective Sydney : Angus and Robertson Pacific Books , 1968
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y
The Bone Is Pointed
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1938
Z211356
1938
single work
novel
crime
'Jack Anderson was a big man with a foul temper, a sadist and a drunk. Five months after his horse appeared riderless, no trace of the man has surfaced and no one seems to care. But Bony is determined to follow the cold trail and smoke out some answers.' (Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1968 - y The Road to Yesterday : Collected Stories Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1964 Z567502 1964 selected work short story Sydney : Pacific Books , 1968
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y
Capricornia : A Novel
Sydney
:
Publicist Publishing Company
,
1938
Z352152
1938
single work
novel
(taught in 7 units)
'Arriving in Capricornia (a fictional name for the Northern Territory) in 1904 with his brother Oscar, Mark Shillingworth soon becomes part of the flotsam and jetsam of Port Zodiac (Darwin) society. Dismissed from the public service for drunkenness, Mark forms a brief relationship with an Aboriginal woman and fathers a son, whom he deserts and who acquires the name of Naw-Nim (no-name). After killing a Chinese shopkeeper, Norman disappears from view until the second half of the novel.
Capricornia Sydney : Pacific Books , 1969
'Oscar, the respectable contrast to Mark, marries and tries to establish himself on a Capricornian cattle station, Red Ochre, but is deserted by his wife and eventually returns for a time to Batman (Melbourne), accompanied by his daughter Marigold and foster son Norman, who has been sent to him after Mark's desertion.
'Oscar rejects the plea of a former employee, Peter Differ, to see to the welfare of his daughter Constance; Constance Differ is placed under the 'protection' of Humboldt Lace, a Protector of Aborigines, who seduces her and then marries her off to another man of Aboriginal descent. Forced into prostitution, Constance is dying of consumption when discovered by a railway fitter, Tim O'Cannon, who will take care of Constance's daughter, Tocky, until his own death in a train accident.
Hearing news in 1928 of an economic boom in Capricornia, Oscar returns to his station, where he is joined by Marigold and Norman, who has grown to manhood believing himself to be the son of a Javanese princess and a solider killed in the First World War. Soon after, he discovers his mother was an Aboriginal woman, and meets his father, with whom he will not reconcile until later in the novel. Norman then goes on a series of journeys to discover his true, Aboriginal self. On the second of these journeys, he meets and wanders in the wilderness with Tocky, who has escaped from the mission station to which she was sent after the death of O'Cannon. During this passage, she kills a man in self-defense, which leads to Norman's being accused of murder, at the same time his father is prosecuted for the death of the Chinese shopkeeper. At the end of the novel they are both acquitted, Heather and Mark are married, and Norman returns to Red Ochre, where he finds the body of Tocky and their child in a water tank in which she had taken refuge from the authorities.' (Source: Oxford Companion to Australian Literature) - y Dead Men Rising : A Novel London : Jonathan Cape , 1951 Z182740 1951 single work novel war literature Fictional account of the Cowra breakout during the Second World War. Sydney : Pacific Books , 1969
- y Smithy : The Kingsford-Smith Story London : Robert Hale , 1966 Z1303714 1966 single work biography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1969
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y
His Natural Life
For the Term of His Natural Life
1870-1872
Z1032375
1870-1872
single work
novel
(taught in 15 units)
'Scarcely out of print since the early 1870s, For the Term of His Natural Life has provided successive generations with a vivid account of a brutal phase of colonial life. The main focus of this great convict novel is the complex interaction between those in power and those who suffer, made meaningful because of its hero's struggle against his wrongful imprisonment. Elements of romance, incidents of family life and passages of scenic description both relieve and give emphasis to the tragedy that forms its heart.' (Publication summary : Penguin Books 2009)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1969 - y Steak for Breakfast Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1958 Z220974 1958 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1969
- y A Curate in Bohemia Sydney : N.S.W. Bookstall Company , 1913 Z302497 1913 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Long Pig New York (City) : McGraw-Hill , 1958 Z364160 1958 single work novel historical fiction Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Halfway to Anywhere Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1947 Z286591 1947 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Here's Luck Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1930 Z1174152 1930 single work novel humour (taught in 1 units) Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y A Second Helping Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1969 Z872294 1969 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Tell Morning This Sydney : Angus and Robertson , 1967 Z251317 1967 single work novel Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Into the Smother : A Journal of the Burma-Siam Railway London : Hogarth Press , 1963 Z865512 1963 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Out of the Smoke : The Story of a Sail London : Hogarth Press , 1960 Z1201039 1960 single work autobiography Sydney : Pacific Books , 1970
- y Grey Gladiator : H.M.A.S. Sydney with the British Mediterranean Fleet Sydney London : Angus and Robertson , 1941 Z972304 1941 single work non-fiction Action at Sea Lioness of the Seas Sydney : Pacific Books , 1971
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y
Seven Poor Men of Sydney
London
:
Peter Davies
,
1934
Z461354
1934
single work
novel
(taught in 18 units)
'Seven Poor Men of Sydney is a brilliant portrayal of a group of men and women living in Sydney in the 1920s amid conditions of poverty and social turmoil.
Set against the vividly drawn backgrounds of Fisherman's (Watson's) Bay and the innercity slums, the various characters seek to resolve their individual spiritual dilemmas; through politics, religion and philosophy.
Their struggles, their pain and their frustrations are portrayed with consummate skill in this memorable evocation of a city and an era.' (Publication summary)
Sydney : Pacific Books , 1971 -
y
The Advancement of Spencer Button
Sydney
:
Angus and Robertson
,
1950
Z89154
1950
single work
novel
'Bringing all the power and richness of his tale as a short story writer to this, his first novel, Brian James creates an unforgettable picture of a man who always did the right thing.
Spencer Button is a hero who completely lacks heroic qualities. At heart he is romantic and likes to cut a good figure; but he is conventional, careful and ambitious, and timidity and circumstance relentlessly mould him. The chief enemy to his development as a human being is, in fact, the Public Service - an ogre he has served since boyhood; and the assiduity with which he studies his advancement in the Department destroys him as a man. For Spencer Button is a State school teacher.
Iron humour and a fine sense of the ridiculous both make and heighten the tragedy that is Spencer Button. This is the unspectacular tragedy of everyday life, infinitely moving when realized. But upper-most is the irresistible humour of characters like Auntie May and Uncle Fred, of episodes like the inspection of Selkirk school and the coming of the new music master to Simmons Street.
Brian James has a penetrating grasp of character and an astonishing range of mood. Off-setting portraits of exquisite absurdity are scenes that are masterly in their macabre pathos: The downfall of Winnie Ogg, the object of Spencer's first romance; the disintegration of Mr Foll who sacrifices himself to his son's career. Spencer's courtship of Susie, their marriage and its formal banality, his discovery of the warmth and vitality he has missed - these are so acutely drawn as to be almost painful in their reality.
Pedagogic grievances and ambitions, jealousies and snobberies, eternal and never-changing, are shown against a panorama of Australian life from the nineties to the present day. It is an impressive picture of infinite variety, an arresting and challenging story that never fails as entertainment.' (Publisher's blurb)
North Ryde : Pacific Books , 1974 - y Come in Spinner Melbourne : Heinemann , 1951 Z846941 1951 single work novel The action revolves largely around the Hotel South Pacific where the girls and the 'occupying' American troops meet in the vestibule, while upstairs in the Marie Antionette beauty salon the attendants Deb, Guinea and Claire, each with her own complicated romantic entanglement, work long hours to disguise the shortcomings of their rich, fat clientele. A book sharply observant of the new era ushered in by WWII. North Ryde : Pacific Books , 1981