Australasian and Pacific history Books

'Pentridge was a place of murder and mayhem. A bluestone hell. The worst prison Australia has ever seen.' Andrew Kirby, former inmate Welcome to Pentridge, Australia's most infamous prison.In the long-awaited return to his bestselling true crime series...

Winner of the 2020 Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award for nonfiction and the 2019 NSW Premier's History Awards for general history‘Wonderfully researched and beautifully written’ Philip Hoare, author of Leviathan‘Succeeds in conjuring a lost...

There have been histories of Australian football before. There has not been one like Carn. Carn tells the story of the Victorian Football League and its successor, the Australian Football League, from 1897 to the present day, by focusing on 50 of the...

A captivating true story that will speak to generations of Australians, from the author of Mezza Italiana.  'Nonno Anni gives me a nudge. "You know, when I first came to Australia, I knew that my life would change forever."' Leaving the small...

The award-winning biography of one of Australia's best-loved writers ... The author of MY BRILLAINT CAREER had a fascinating career of her own ... Winner of the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature for Non-Fiction 2010 'a long-awaited and splendidly...

In these frustrating days of semi-automated electric trains, it is hard to remember the smell of coal smoke, the hiss of steam, and sting of cinders flying into your eyes as you hung out a window. there was romance then, in working and travelling on the...

The definitive account of when Australia's famed Rats of Tobruk they took on General Erwin Rommel, The Desert Fox. The classic story of 1941's Battle of Tobruk, in which more than 15,000 Australian troops - backed by British artillery - fought in...

Yarns and memories that capture the experience of policing in the bush, gathered by the inimitable Bill 'Swampy' Marsh, bestselling author of GREAT AUSTRALIAN FLYING DOCTOR STORIES and GREAT AUSTRALIAN CWA STORIES.  'I tell you, you meet some...

the world of the Australian drover is almost forgotten. In this book we hear of the men (and women) who travelled vast distances along Australia's stock routes. Bill 'Swampy' Marsh travelled around Australia gathering their stories.Before utes, planes...

the true story of the greatest pastoral landholder in modern history As a barely literate youth of thirteen, Sidney Kidman ran away from home and worked as an odd-job boy in a grog shanty in outback Australia. He went on to become the greatest pastoral...

Family history research has been one of Brenda’s passions for the past twenty years. Finding the diaries of Albert Moore in the War Memorial was a particularly exciting find. As a result she wanted to tell the story of ordinary people who lived...