Hesperian Press

Latest Releases

Bang-em-all. Bush life, and death, on the Gascoyne

Bangemall and the Thomas River Police Station

by Peter J Bridge, with Gail Dreezens

ISBN 978-0-85905-512-3, (2013, New), A4, Illustd., 260 pp, 710 grams

$50.00* + POST

Bangemall, a Gascoyne mining village, 290 km ENE of Carnarvon, near Mt Augustus, cut a swathe through WA history in the 1890s.

Lonely graves, lost gold mines, death by thirst, suicide and native attack. Cattle and gold, natives, cops and crooks, prospectors and gold, in an eye opening collection of details of a forgotten mining town and region. 

Frank Hann’s Lolworth Diaries 1866-1875

Transcribed and edited by Ian Elliot

ISBN 978-0-85905-547-5, (2013, New), A4, illustd., 192pp, 515 grams

$50.00* + POST

The long awaited precursor to Do Not Yield to Despair. Frank Hann’s early days in North Queensland. Annotated and indexed. Cattle Cape mining, characters, conflict, social and family life. Essential for any work on the period in N. Q.

In the Hands of Providence

The desert journeys of David Carnegie

by Bill Peasley

ISBN 978-0-85905-530-7, (2013), A4, illustrated, 246pp, 675g

$45.00* + POST

This is a facsimile of the original ms before it was cut for the earlier and much smaller edition. Contains photos, maps, sketches, etc. An essential companion to Spinifex and Sand.

Also contains an appendix on the death of Stansmore and the finding of his burial site.

Landlords of the Iron Shore

by

John Slade Durlacher, with an Introduction by Dr Peter Gifford

ISBN 978-0-85905-539-0, (New 2013), 106pp, illustrated, 275g

$25.00 + POST

J. S. Durlacher was a Pilbara pastoralist with a great interest in native customs. In 1900 he wrote his reminiscences of these, together with a unique series of sketches.

Lost for a century his fascinating descriptions are now available courtesy of the Roebourne Shire and Rio Tinto Iron Ore.

The Magic Snake

by

Billy Miller Linklater

ISBN 978-0-85905-371-6, (1946 R 2013), 96pp, illustrated, 205g

$26.00* + POST

Billy was the author of Gather No Moss, a NT classic. He wrote of the Territory when it was young. These are his collected legends of the Warramunga tribe among whom he lived and worked for many years. A forgotten classic of the North. 

The String of the Last Wreath

 The Hall’s Creek goldfields diary of Henry Berand

transcribed by Ray Scott

ISBN 978-0-85905-553-6, (New, 2013), A4, 74pp, illustrated, 230 grams.

$22.00* + POST

Henry Berand emigrated from Prussia to Australia, via New Zealand, around 1852, apparently following the Gold Rushes in the Eastern States. About 1887 Henry with his young wife and daughter migrated to the Kimberley Gold Fields at Halls Creek in search of their fortune.

Unfortunately, his wife Harriett died in 1890 leaving Henry to care for their 2 year old daughter, Ruby May. By 1896 Henry could see that the Goldfields were no place for a widower to raise a daughter, and so, after he and Ruby each laid a last wreath on Harriett's grave, they set out to return to Harriett's Family in the East.

This is Henry's story from that decision until close to his death in 1913. It is a factual account of the early Kimberley goldfields and the place of the Prospectors, Businessmen and Families of the time.

There’s Gold There – Look For It

by

John Drayton

ISBN 978-0-85905-544-4, (R New 2013), A4, 128pp, 380g

$30.00* + POST

60 true tales of real finds and lost mines from Queensland to the Kimberley. Treasures from the files of John Drayton, prospector and journalist of the 1890s to 1940s. This could be the jackpot for a modern prospector. With a biographical introduction by Peter J Bridge.

COMPLETE LIST OF NEW TITLES