PLEASE NOTE: Any book title starting with "The" - the second word of the title is used to list by.
McLean Bros & Rigg Ltd, General hardware electrical and machinery merchants, Catalogue No. 3 1950.
ISBN 978-1-875778-36-2, (1950, R 2024) A4, 340 pages, French flaps, highly illustrated, 980 grams, $60.00*
This magnificent catalogue with thousands of illustrations of items will become as essential reference for collectors of a wide range of Australiana items, dealers, ebayers, and those involved in all manner of heritage studies.
A lucky find in the crowded shelves of a junk shop. The only known copy now reproduced for the benefit of all.
My father worked for McLeans as a shipping clerk before the war and was helpfully advised by the Customs officer son of Pilmer of Northern Patrol in customs clearances. Nearby was his father’s business, Bridge Built Tinware & Sheetmetal Work based in Wellington Street, Perth, and started in his Carlisle backyard during the Great Depression. Wartime work was on the submarine fleet at Fremantle. Later it became Bridge and Wilson, which again later became Jason Industries at Welshpool. The plant in the old Government Munitions Factory grew into the large factories in Pilbara Street. This unfortunately was stripped of people, land and assets by the banksters and a flourishing business employing hundreds of West Australians was thrown to the wolves, if not of Wall Street, their close relatives, and just as savage.
The pages of this wonderful catalogue display the Model Maid and Cinderella kitchen products as well as the Fasta bath heater, all produced by Jason Industries. My youthful visits to the anodising and plating operations and forced work on the metal spinning lathes (to keep an eye on me after a thwarted adventure) are still fresh in my mind. I admired the work of the toolmakers, the 100 ton press and the hard working machine operators.
The destruction of so much of Australian industry by the Whitlam and following Labor and other governments, with the Lima Agreement, globalism and free trade have been a disaster for the nation. Some of the blood sucking scum of the underworld became billionaires and with others cannibalised the assets of a once highly productive and creative nation. We all know who they are but their faecal families may object to being named.
This process, ongoing in the Western world, has delivered us into the hands of the crass commercialism of China and elsewhere. Our once almost self-sufficient nation has been ‘consumerised’. There is currently no way out of this mess. It is going to get bad, very, very bad.
The once most advanced political economy in the world has been reduced to beggar status and we are now just a colony of international capital. Our so-called allies (All Lies) are merely those closer to our dinner plate, with us as the dinner. The swamps of the ruling political parties must be drained and the poison of those beholden to alien interests defanged.
While few understand the processes of destruction that have gone on we all have some nostalgia for the past and this is expressed in the growing interest in the relics of our past. Collector’s, historical societies, and vintage shops flourish, albeit as adjuncts to pawn shops, a sign of our sad times.
The republication of this magnificent catalogue will enable collectors and dealers to identify and place the significance of items. It will bring to light many lost memories. Perhaps it will also act as a reviver for those whose autarkic ideas may regenerate industry and a natural nationalism.
McLean Brothers and Rigg’s Perth operations were serially cannibalised and eventually closed sometime in the early 2000s.
McLennan's Way
The Bush Ballads of Lex McLennan 1909 - 1969
edited by Jean Green and James Fitzgerald
ISBN 0 85905 201 X, (1994 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 82pp, 125grams
$22.00 + POST
The poetry of one of Australia’s best balladists.
Meekatharra
"End of the Earth"
by P.R. Heydon
ISBN 0 85905 196 X (1994 new), Hard Cover, 438 pp, illustrated, 660grams
$60.00 + POST
Meekatharra - "End of the Earth" celebrates the centenary of Meekatharra and covers the period 1894 to 1994. It tells of the gold discoveries and the ups and downs of gold mining. Being the railhead for the vast hinterland to the north and the northwest, stories abound of transport by donkey and camel teams; of the early motor vehicles; and the present day road trains.
Megisti in the Antipodes
by John Yiannakis
ISBN 0 85905 218 4, (1996 new), Hard Cover, 147mm x 222mm, 276pp. illustrated, 470grams
$40.00 + POST
A study of the Castellorizian Greeks in Western Australia.
Memoirs
by J. Jobst.
ISBN 978-0-85905-891-9. (New, 2021), A4, French flap soft cover, illustrated, 102 pages, 400 grams, $40.00*
John Jobst was the Catholic Bishop of the Kimberley. We published his memoirs privately in 2000 as an edition of 40. John died in 2014.
His memoirs, both of his experiences in the Kimberley, and especially in his life on the Eastern Front and as a prisoner in the ‘American’ death camp on the Rhine, are valuable reading.
Memoirs of a Spanish Missionary Monk
by Seraphim Sanz de Galdeano OSB MBE OAM CSM
ISBN 0 85905 386 5, (2006 New), Soft Cover, 260pp, illust, 350grams
$35 + POST
Seraphim Sanz de Galdeano was born in Spain in 1913, the eighth of ten children. At eleven years of age he heard Dom Anselm Catalan of New Norcia, Western Australia speak of the need for missionaries to work with the Australian Aborigines in far flung areas of Australia. From that time, young Seraphim decided to dedicate his life to this mission.
Memoirs of Ted Cockram
Teamster, Tailor and Tourism
A life in the NW
Ted Cockram
ISBN 978-0-85905-703-5, (New, 2018), A4, 220pp, illustrated, 600 grams. Out of Print.
Ted’s early bush life led to his being one of the major promotors of tourism in the North and the Goldfields, long before the current slick marketing campaigns have made their millions. An important bio of a genuine Westralian.
Memories of the Best Generation or My First 85 Years
by Jack Matthews.
ISBN 978-0-85905-556-7, (New, 2013), A4, illustrated, 40pp, 140grams
$22.00* + POST
From early childhood in country South Aus, 1930s depression years to independence on a NSW cattle station at 13 years; back to South Aus and up the Birdsville Track mustering cattle on the Queensland stations. Droving from the Kimberley, through the Territory and down to South East Queensland. Working with natives; some good some bad. The misadventures of Sandy MacIndoe and his death (with my .38cal. revolver). The man with the wheelbarrow who survived the Kimberley but perished between two creeks in the Territory. Dad wounded twice in France; two brothers in World War II, my turn in Korea with 1 & 2 RAR and the battle of the Hook.
Metamorphosis of a Race
Kuíni and Kulári Tribes of Kalúmburu Mission
by Seraphim Sanz de Galdeano OSB MBE OAM CSM and Dolores Djinmora
ISBN 0 85905 376 8, (2006 New), Soft Cover, 152pp, illustrated, 260grams, $35.00 + POST
Engrossing ...... a living history. The fascinating observations and life of Father Seraphim Sanz, a Benedictine monk, who served his God at Kalumburu, an isolated Aboriginal Mission in Australia's Far North West. and the impressions of an amazing Aboriginal elder, Dolores Djinmora who worked along side Father Sanz in his Christian endeavours.
(Diana Temby, Executive Director, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission)
Military Establishment and Penal Settlement at King George Sound
by J. Sweetman
ISBN 0 85905 022 X, (1989 new), Soft Cover, 24pp, 40grams
$10.00* + POST
In 1826 the brig Amity set sail from Sydney to establish a penal settlement at King George's Sound, in what was then unclaimed territory, to prevent a possible French claim. Under the command of Major Lockyer the settlement of 'Frederick's Town' was proclaimed.
Sweetman provides a detailed list of the personnel, military and convict, who first settled there until it came under the control of the Swan River Colony in 1831.
The Military Establishment in Western Australia
1828 - 1863
by E.S. & C.G.S. Whitely (Edited by Keith Bostock and with a Supplement by Pamela Statham)
ISBN 978-0-85905-403-4, (New, 2010), A4, 113pp, 335grams
$30.00* + POST
The Military Establishment includes a general survey of the early military establishment, details of the military posts, an extensive biographical index and statistical data on each regiment.
This book The Military Establishment & the H.M.S. Sulphur are the first publication of the privately circulated manuscripts written by the Whiteleys in the 1960s. The husband and wife team were executive members of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society but their work has been generally little known due to the limitations on publication at the time. Hesperian Press acquired the rights in the early 1980s. The third volume, The First Five Hundred, will be published in early 2011.
The Millendon Memoirs
George Fletcher Moore's Western Australian Diaries and Letters,
1830 - 1841
edited by J M R Cameron
ISBN 0 85905 388 1, (2006 New), Hard Cover, 536pp, illustrated, 1020grams
$80.00* + POST
This is probably the most important colonial work to be published in WA. There are no other diary or letter sequences of such content from such a central figure in the early colony. Dr Cameron has assiduously bought together the documents that were omitted from the “Diary of Ten Years”, together with that material, to form an altogether different volume, with three times the content of ‘Ten Years’. The correct order and full expression of the letters gives quite a different picture to that previously portrayed. This is an absolutely essential volume for anyone interested in, or studying, colonial history, policy, or the lives of the colonists and the land around them.
Mineral and Locality Index to the Publications of the W.A.
Government Chemical Laboratories 1922-1970
by P.J. Bridge
ISBN 0 85905 001 7, (1971-72 New), Soft Cover, 122pp, 600grams, $50.00* (Direct from Publisher only)
Minerals of Western Australia
by E.S. Simpson
ISBN 0 85905 053 X, (1984 reprint of 1948-52 editions with new material), Hard Cover, illustrated, 2054pp, 3.5kg
$300.00* + POST
This is a magnificent 2,000 page, three-volume work on Western Australian minerals.
Many a fortune made from prospecting and mining has been due to careful study of its contents.
The previously-out-of-print Locality–Mineral Index by P.J. Bridge is incorporated into Simpson's definitive reference.
Miracle of Fairbridge
by Joan Halls
ISBN 0 85905 264 8, (1999 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 160pp, illustrated, 210grams
$22.00 + POST
The Miracle of Fairbridge details the difficulties and determination that resulted in the Fairbridge Farm School scheme. From 1912 to 1982 thousands of British children were given a new life and education.
Miscegenation, Murder, and Betrayal on the Murray. Race, Reality, and the joys of Multiculturalism.
Peter J Bridge.
ISBN 978-0-85905-962-6, (New, 2023), A4, 38 pages, grams, $25.00*
An Englishman murdered on the Murray River. A twisted wife and a Japanese lodger. A hanging.
The Misfortunes of Phoebe
by Rica Erickson
ISBN 0 85905 238 9, (1997 new), Soft Cover, 180pp, illustrated, 220grams
$22.00 + POST
The author's great grandmother in the Victorian gold rush and the story of her descendants.
Moondyne Joe
The Man and the Myth
by Ian Elliot
ISBN 085905 244 3, (1998 reprint of 1978 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 148pp, 27 illustrations, 205 grams, $30.00 + POST
Joseph Bolitho Johns, 'Moondyne Joe' (or 'Moonie' to his mates), was a good badman who gallops across the pages of Western Australian history with all the spirit of a wild bush brumby.
Moondyne Joe Poster
A poster with only known extant photo of Moondyne Joe
The unique photo of Moondyne Joe in kangaroo skin booka, as it appears on the cover of the book, has been produced as a poster, 59.5 x 84 cm. These have a RRP of $10.00.
Postage is a problem as they must be rolled in a tube. POA.
More Lonely Graves of Western Australia
by Yvonne and Kevin Coate
ISBN 0 85905 276 1, (wrongley numbered 275), (2000 new), Hard Cover, laminated, section sewn, 160mm x 245mm, 542pp, illustrated, 1080grams
$85.00* + POST
This magnificent compilation is the culmination of some twenty years of research and lists all details of lonely graves of Western Australia collected since the 1986 publication Lonely Graves of Western Australia and Burials at Sea.
Mostly Good Times Revisited
by Enga & Bernard Smith.
ISBN 978-0-85905-671-7, (1986, 2017, R), Soft Cover, 148pp, illustrated, 220 grams, $22.00
Mostly Good Times is about the founding of Towrana sheep station in the North West of Western Australia and of life in an isolated bush community. It is a lively account of life and living in the Gascoyne – of Walter Smith and Emily Turp who left England about the turn of the century, their meeting and the raising of a family in the Australian bush. [BIO] [MUR]
Mother O’Neill
Widow of the Kimberley Goldfield
by Yvonne Coate
ISBN 978-0-85905-518-5, (2012, New), Full colour, illustrated, 245 x 160, 135pp, 330 grams
$35.00 + POST
Sarah O’Neill was a widow on the Kimberley Goldfield, in the 1880s, the same time as Russian Jack, the famous wheelbarrow man who became legendary throughout the goldfields of WA.
The Mount Minnie Mystery
&
A Midnight Melee
Edited by Peter J Bridge with Gail Dreezens
ISBN 978-0-85905-425-6, (2008 New), Soft Cover, 36 pages, A4, 125grams
$22.00* + POST
The Mount Minnie Mystery. In late 1925 Moorish horse dealer, Alexander Hughes, and his aboriginal assistant, Sailor, disappeared from Mount Minnie Station near Onslow in the North West of Western Australia. What followed in the police investigation stunned the normally unflappable Nor’westers. The investigation by Detective O’Brien was a masterpiece of police work in an environment not conducive to such careful forensic analysis.
A Midnight Melee. In 1920 a well-known Nor’ Wester, Charles Athelstone Park, was arrested for the murder of Big Bob, an aboriginal drover. The investigation covered territory from the Kimberley to the Upper Gascoyne. The trial, its revelations, and its aftermath brought the reality of dangerous bush life to the city dwellers, and was a harbinger of the current situation where more city people are attacked and murdered by “aboriginals” than they were in the goldrush days of the 1890s.
Mountain View Gold - Day Dawn
&
The Italians who made it Happen
by Alex Palmer
ISBN 978-0-85905-514-7, (2012N), illust., 125pp, 240g'
$25.00 + POST
A new day dawned for Day Dawn WA, following a rich strike at Mountain View.
A group of Italian prospectors at Day Dawn in the 1940s, down to their uppers, defying the advice of experts, persevered for four years before they finally struck it rich.
Moving Mountains
The Evolution of Port Hedland Harbour
by Murray Shaw
ISBN 0 85905 389 X, (2007 new), Soft Cover, A4, 98pp, Illustrated in colour, 285grams
$30* + POST
Contains 21 colour and 24 black and white illustrations.
Port Hedland is the biggest tonnage port in Australia. This is its story!
Mulga Fred. From stock camp to sartorial icon and down-and-out again.
Peter J Bridge
ISBN 978-0-85905-930-5, (New, 2022), A4, 46 pages, well illustrated, 150 grams, $25.00*
Fred, a NW aboriginal became a bush circus horse rider and ended up in Victoria where he was long thought to be the model for Pelaco's "Mine tinkit they fit" shirt advertisements. He was killed by a train in 1948.
"Mum’s Grey Hair"
by Rod Dickson
ISBN 978-0-85905-584-0, (2014), A4, 198pp, illustrated, 555grams
$40.00* + POST
Rod Dickson’s idiosyncratic memoirs cover his early childhood in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, his years at Tyler St. Primary and Reservoir and Northcote High Schools and after leaving the hallowed halls of learning pursued a 51 year career at sea. On all types of vessels ranging from a crayfishing boat to tugs, oil rig tenders, cargo ships, tankers to finally a 128,000 ton L.N.G. Tanker from which he retired. The title of this autobiography comes from his mother’s favourite saying - "Rodney you gave me all my Grey Hairs."
Mungilli : Poor Little Fella
by Maureen Herbert
ISBN 978-0-85905-588-8, (2014, new), Softcover, A4, well illustrated - some colour, 111pp, 325g
$30.00* + POST
Maureen and Trevor Herbert, on a desert expedition with Dr Bill Peasley, found a half starved desert dingo and he adopted them.
This is the story of their times together, enlightened by the correspondence of Mungilli and Dr Bill.
A good read for those interested in desert travel, wildlife, and people.
The Murchison in 1887
William Frear Forster & Frank Wittenoom
ISBN 978-0-85905-716-5, (New, 2018), A4, Indexed, 57 pp, 170 grams
$30.00* + POST
The newly created stations in the Upper Murchison became a byword for enterprise and have remained important pastoral properties to the present. A visit by a group of government officials and business people recorded much that was otherwise lost.