Australian history

Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia

Santilla Chingaipe

The story of Australia’s Black convicts has been all but erased from our history. In this deeply researched and illuminating book, Santilla Chingaipe offers a fresh understanding of this fatal…

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Orstralia

Tristan Clark

With appeal to more than just punk history obsessives, Orstralia offers an unprecedented snapshot of an underacknowledged segment of Australian life and history.

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Australia in 100 Words

Amanda Laugesen

Captivating and quirky, Australia in 100 Words takes readers chronologically through Australian history to tell a unique story through language

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Dark Emu

Bruce Pascoe

Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians.

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Townsend of the Ranges

Peter Crowley

Surveyor Thomas Scott Townsend (18121869) is an elusive, almost legendary figure, closer to folklore than to history. His name is given to the country's second highest mountain, but the details…

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Madame Brussels

Barbara Minchinton, Philip Bentley

A must-read biography of an enigmatic personality who helped shape early Melbourne

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Travelling to Tomorrow

Yves Rees

Yves Rees rewrites the story of Australian-US relations by spotlighting ten trailblazing women whose extraordinary lives have largely been forgotten.

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Broken Heart

Shireen Morris

The inside story of the 2023 Voice Referendum, from Yes to No

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Life So Full of Promise

Ross McMullin

Life So Full of Promise, his second multi-biography about Australia’s lost generation of World War I, features a collection of interwoven stories set in that defining era.

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Killing for Country: A Family Story

David Marr

A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia's frontier wars

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A Very Secret Trade

Cassandra Pybus

Author of the bestselling Truganini, Cassandra Pybus has uncovered one of the darkest and best kept secrets in Australian colonial history.

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Bennelong and Phillip

Kate Fullagar

The first dual biography of Bennelong and Governor Arthur Phillip, two pivotal figures in Australian history - the colonised and coloniser - and a bold and innovative new portrait of…

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A Secretive Century

Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Australia's modern transformation as revealed through the life of an extraordinary woman

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Lest: Australian War Myths

Mark Dapin

From Simpson’s donkey and the Emu War to Vietnam and Ben Roberts-Smith, Australian military history is full of events that didn’t happen the way most people think they did. In…

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Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1860

Richard Broome

The story of how Victoria's First Nations people survived near decimation to become a vibrant community today. This second edition has been fully updated, and covers the Yoorrook Justice Commission…

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Wed by the Wayside

Alana Valentine

Can marriage be an act of rebellion? This is the story of Wayside Chapel, a quiet revolution from a side street of Kings Cross, Sydney. ict.

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The Last Charge of the Australian Light Horse

Peter FitzSimons

From the bestselling author of Kokoda and Gallipoli, the extraordinary story of the Australian Light Horse, their defining World War I battle: the iconic cavalry charge at Beersheba in October…

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The Diggers of Kapyong

Tom Gilling

The gripping account of Australia in the Korean War and how 3RAR battalion held back an entire Chinese army division to prevent Seoul being overrun.

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Unconventional Women

Sarah Gilbert

The lives of the women who joined a closed convent in Melbourne in a time of great upheaval

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Pig City (20th anniversary edition)

Andrew Stafford

The twentieth-anniversary celebration of an Australian music cult classic, now with a foreword by Eamon Sandwith from The Chats

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Always Was, Always Will Be

Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson

Always Was, Always Will Be takes a closer look at some of the iconic First Peoples protest movements of the last 200 years, celebrating the strength, wisdom, and bravery of…

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Buckham’s Bombers

Mark Baker

The untold story of one of the finest Australian air crews in World War II, and one of the most dangerous missions of the war in Europe.

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Fitzroy 1974

Robert Ashton

Revisiting photographer Robert Ashton’s landmark 1974 black-and-white image series documenting life in Melbourne’s bohemian Fitzroy fifty years on.

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The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli

Ryan Butta

The amazing true story of Harry Freame, who was raised as a samurai in Japan before becoming an Anzac and saving many lives as a scout at Gallipoli, only to…

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Personal Politics

Leigh Boucher, Barbara Baird, Michelle Arrow, Robert Reynolds

Personal Politics brings together, for the first time, the voices and campaigns of a diverse set of activists who employed ideas about gender and sexuality to remake modern Australia.

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Rock and Tempest

Patricia Collins

When Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin on Christmas Day 1974, it was the worst natural disaster Australians had ever experienced. Stationed in the city with the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service…

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A Little History of the Australian Labor Party

Nick Dyrenfurth, Frank Bongiorno

A little book about the big history of one of Australia's most important institutions

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Corners of Melbourne

Robyn Annear

Melbourne's favourite historian, as seen in the acclaimed documentary, The Lost City of Melbourne, takes us on an unorthodox tour of the city's streets and corners, telling stories about the…

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Bina: First Nations Languages Old and New

Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins

The remarkable story of Australia's First Nations Languages, from precolonial times to the present

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The Way We Were: Australian in the Last Century

Alan J. Whiticker

Australian life has seen many changes in the last century. We have gone from scattered colonies to federated nation, from bush pioneers to suburbanites, and along the way there have…

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Blood on the Wattle

Bruce Elder

Blood on the Wattle draws together, in a single volume, most of the information about the massacres of Aboriginal people which has been recorded in books and journals. It also…

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Phillip Island

John Smailes

Phillip Island is Australia's home of motorsport. These are the untold stories of a century of racing.

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Dive! Australian Submariners at War

Mike Carlton

Submarines and the sailors who serve in them have been and remain the tip of the spear of Australia's defences. For the first time, this is their unique story.

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The Golden Gang

Ian W. Shaw

The first comprehensive biography of the godfather of Australian bushranging – Frank Gardiner – leader of the Lachlan gang and mastermind of the largest gold heist in Australian history.

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The Cubbies

Joan Healey

This is the rollicking tale of Australia's first true adventure playground, when children were allowed to use a patch of public land as their own backyard, to play in freely…

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Kondak

Paul Cougle

In 1803 the convict escapee William Buckley, an Englishman and former British soldier, abandoned the life he knew and without contact with Europeans lived for many years among the indigenous…

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The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars

Duane Hamacher

The First Astronomers is the first book to reveal the rich knowledge of the stars and the planets held by First Peoples around the world.

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How James Became King

Brian O'Malley

King' O'Malley is known to history as a 'larrikin' and maverick politician, member of the first Australian Federal Parliament and Federal Minister, whose political career spanned two decades. Arriving from…

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For Social Betterment

Jane Miller

A history of those working to help society's most vulnerable.

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Courting

Alecia Simmonds

Award-winning author Alecia Simmonds uncovers a hidden history of love and heartbreak in the archives of law

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Wild Love

Kiera Lindsey

Kiera Lindsey uncovers the life of the exuberant colonial painter Adelaide Ironside, from her childhood on the shores of Sydney harbour to the leading artistic circles of Europe where she…

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No Country for Idealists

Boris Frankel

This book is a dramatic account of the making of a family of 'subversives' in Australia and the USSR during the Cold War

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Shoulda Been Higher

Tom Clarke

This is the definitive account of the Hottest 100, a chronicle and a love letter - it's the complete picture from Augie March to Ziggy Alberts, 'Amazing' to 'Zombie'.

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Making Australian History

Anna Clark

A bold and expansive history that traces the changing and contested project of Australia’s national story. You will think about this country differently after reading this book.

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Life As We Knew It

Aisha Dow, Melissa Cunningham

The gripping inside account of Australia’s extraordinary pandemic story.

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Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers

Stephen McGrath

This is an incredible, true and uniquely Australian story, it is beautifully told, giving us deep insight into the struggles of extraordinary people in extraordinary times.

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Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up

Mavis Kerinaiua, Laura Rademaker

Tiwi people have plenty to be proud of. This little tropical island community has more than its fair share of surprising stories that turn ideas of Australian history upside down.

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Cast Mates

Sam Twyford-Moore

Cast Mates is a group biography of Australian acting giants across the ages.

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Australian history

Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia

Orstralia

Australia in 100 Words

Dark Emu

Townsend of the Ranges

Madame Brussels

Travelling to Tomorrow

Broken Heart

Life So Full of Promise

Killing for Country: A Family Story

A Very Secret Trade

Bennelong and Phillip

A Secretive Century

Lest: Australian War Myths

Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1860

Wed by the Wayside

The Last Charge of the Australian Light Horse

The Diggers of Kapyong

Unconventional Women

Pig City (20th anniversary edition)

Always Was, Always Will Be

Buckham’s Bombers

Fitzroy 1974

The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli

Personal Politics

Rock and Tempest

A Little History of the Australian Labor Party

Corners of Melbourne

Bina: First Nations Languages Old and New

The Way We Were: Australian in the Last Century

Blood on the Wattle

Phillip Island

Dive! Australian Submariners at War

The Golden Gang

The Cubbies

Kondak

The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars

How James Became King

For Social Betterment

Courting

Wild Love

No Country for Idealists

Shoulda Been Higher

Making Australian History

Life As We Knew It

Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers

Tiwi Story: Turning History Downside Up

Cast Mates