PLEASE NOTE: Any book title starting with "The" - the second word of the title is used to list by.

All prices quoted are in Australian currency and include GST.
* Short trade discount.

packhorse_and_waterholePackhorse & Waterhole

by Gordon Buchanan

ISBN 0 85905 237 0, (1984 reprint of 1933 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 130pp, 180grams

$22.00 + POST


Packhorse & Waterhole is the classic of Northern Territory pastoral exploration.  Bluey Buchanan, old ‘Paraway’, was one of Australia’s greatest bushmen.

This is the story of a man who paved the way and made the tracks easy for others to follow. His life story is told by his son who went with him on his later expeditions.

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paddy_bakerPaddy Baker – Picture Show Man

by Max D. Bell

ISBN 978-0-85905-093-7, (2011 new), 53pp, A4, illustrated, 180grams

$22.00* + POST


Paddy Baker (1898-1988) was born in Yundamindra on the north-eastern goldfields of W.A. As a boy he became an assistant projectionist to a travelling picture man in Sandstone, and his love of films and their showing never left him.

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paddy_coverPaddy the Flat

The life of Patrick Leahey Australian hero, prospector, publican, and fighter for Digger rights

by Collected and edited by  Peter J Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-065-4, (2010 new), A4, 29pp, illust, 120grams

$22.00* + POST


Paddy was one of the great Australian characters of the late 19C. Born in Ireland in 1819, British Army in the Kaffir Wars, then to Victoria, Bendigo, Eureka Stockade, Lambing Flat, north Queensland, Kimberley, and then to the Murchison. He is renowned for his fights against the mass Chinese invasion of the goldfields, his outspokenness and confrontation with idiots in power, his Gladstone Arms pub and bush hospital in Halls Creek, his unique system of book keeping, and his nearly 3000 mile walk to the Kimberley in 1895. He died in 1912 and rests in a paupers grave at Fremantle.

padre_plodPadre Plod

by Barry May

ISBN 0 85905 424 1, (2007 new), Soft Cover, 265 pages, 355grams

$30.00 + POST


During his many years as Western Australia’s first full-time Police Chaplain, Father Barry May often attended scenes of great trauma and witnessed heart-breaking tragedy, he encountered things that would test anyone’s faith. Yet it was his own unflinching faith in God the Creator that sustained him in his grim responsibilities.

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pansysPansy’s Shanty

by Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-793-6, (New, 2020), A4, illustrated, 48 pages, 160 grams, $25.00* 


On a vibrant sly grog seller and demi monde of Laverton. She cut a swathe through the underworld of the early goldfields and her customers sometimes died violently. Pansy died destitute, after seeing the light internally, from a box of wax match heads. 

pastoral_pioneersPastoral Pioneers of W.A.

1884-1889

by E.T. Hooley

ISBN 0 85905 331 8, (2004 new), soft cover, A4, 72pp, 210grams

$22.00* + POST


Hooley, writing under the name of ‘Bucolic’ described many pastoral properties from the Kimberley to the Southwest.

s_s_p1_2Sand and Stone

Pt 1. Colonists and Convicts

Pt 2. Pastoralists and Prospectors

By Kevin Moran

ISBN 978-0-85905-572-7, ISBN 978-0-85905-573-4, (2000, 2013), A4, 730 pp, Soft cover, illustrated, indexed, **kg.

$140.00*. + POST

Sold only as a set.


A magnificent overview of the colony from a police perspective. Contains a great deal not available elsewhere.

patrick_c_hughesPatrick C. Hughes. Pioneer prospector and political philosopher.

by Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-870-4, (N, 2021), A4, illustrated, 38 pages, 170 grams, $30.00*


Pat Hughes was a great beacon to prospectors in the 1890s, having near perished in the scrub, and though he did not make a great strike, his selflessness in the Alluvial Rights Riots of 1898 made him a true exemplar of Kipling's If.

paynes_find_coverPaynes Find

by Alex Palmer

ISBN 978-0-85905-467-6, (2010), 115pp, illust., 170grams

$22.00 + POST

New edition updated to 2001, with 11 more pages.


Paynes Find, 400 kilometres north of Perth, is one of Western Australia's most isolated towns and to most people represents nothing more than a fleeting change in the scenery when travelling the Great Northern Highway.

It is an enigma and by rights should have gone the way of the ten or so gold mining towns that once dotted the Yalgoo district.

However, it owes it continued existence to that isolation, a centre kept alive by the mining and pastoral industries, each in turn, as their prosperity waxed and waned over the years, an oasis for them and the traveller. Contains the history and biographies of its people.

pearling_days_coverPearling Days

by John Brockman

ISBN 978-0-85905-488-1, (2010, New), A4, 89pp, 270grams

$30.00* + POST


The pearling voyage of the Sarah to the North West and Kimberley in 1889 and 1881, with an appendix on the death of WH Lowe during an expedition NE of the Gascoyne in late 1881.

From John Brockman’s 1912 manuscript. With a Foreword by Mike McCarthy of the Maritime Museum, and edited by Peter J Bridge.

One of the few books on the earliest days of pearling in WA. Extremely readable and enlightening.

pearls_and_pearling_lifePearls and Pearling Life

by E.W. Streeter

ISBN 0 85905 255 9, (1886 reprint 2007), Hard Cover, 340 pp, illust, 835 grams

$116.00* + POST


The pearling classic, impossible to obtain. With tipped in colour plates and map. A study of pearls and pearling regions of the world. Early WA pearling.

peculiar_habitsPeculiar Habits and Customs of the Aborigines of Western Australia

by Alexander Milne Robertson and Peter J Bridge.

[ISBN 978-0-85905-881-0], (1879, 2021), A4, 42 pages, illustrated, 160 grams. $30.00* 


A.M. Robertson, the Prison doctor for Fremantle and Rottnest wrote of the sub-incision (whistlecocking) of the natives at Rottnest. A unique mutilation, it has been the subject of interest to many over the years. This is his original published report and thesis on the subject. An appendix queries the origin of the rite and posits the introduction by Arab sailors at an unknown time. Also the story of the stolen or destroyed illustrated copy from the State Library of WA.

perched_on_the_railsPerched On The Rails

by Bruce Paterson

ISBN 0 85905 187 0, (1990 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 260 pp Illustrated, 350grams

$28.00 + POST


An account of one man's odyssey from 1945 to the '80s, through the far-flung stock camps of the East Kimberley, Queensland's Gulf country, South Australia's North East, the Wiluna desert fringe and ultimately from the Pilbara to the closely settled area of Bindoon, near Perth.

Paterson records his memories of the work, the fun, the fauna, some politics, the encroachment of technology and some marvellous but largely unsung people met along the way.

Perched on the Rails is a rattling good read, a hidden gem and one that you will be pleased to have in your library.

perils_of_pearling_cvrThe Perils of Pearling, its Pleasures and Profits

Broome in 1910

Charles “Vagrant” Collins

ISBN 978-0-85905-736-3, (New, 2018), A4, illustrated, indexed, 32pp, 100 grams

$22.00* + POST


An incisive examination of Broome in its heyday.

peter_mcquadePeter McQuade, the Hayward family, and the Cookernup-Harvey timber industry.

Charlie Hayward.

ISBN 978-1-875778-11-9, A5, 6 pages, $10.00*


peterwangy_coverPeterwangy

Western Australia’s First Goldrush

 by P. J. Bridge and Gail Dreezens

ISBN 978-0-85905-457-7, (2008), A4, 106pp, Soft Cover, 300grams

$30.00* + POST


The 1870 rush to the Irwin River near Geraldton and the details of its discoverer George Brelsford, with notes on barisal guns, diamonds and gold at Mingenew.

pharmacyPharmacy Apprenticeship Education in Western Australia

 

by Bruce Sutherland

ISBN 978-0-85905-828-5, (New, 2020), 160 x 240, illustrated, 80 pages, 230 grams, $30.00*


This book describes the background to the commencement of pharmacy and its statutory recognition in Western Australia. It particularly focusses on the history of pharmacy education. This was a special arrangement which commenced in 1903 between the pharmacy profession and Perth Technical College. Pharmacy education was embodied within the Department of Chemistry at Perth Technical College. It traces the factors that influenced the nature of the education and responsibility for the practitioners that qualified from the only course available to the public in Western Australia. The role of apprenticeship education is debated and how it affected pharmacy education in Western Australia, until the course closure in 1968. 

It is essential reading for all involved in both higher education in Australia, and specifically those who have trained in Pharmacy.

photo_from_frontier_kimberlPhotographs from the Frontier

Kimberley 1910-1911

by the Swedish Scientific Expedition, Ed. Kim Akerman.

ISBN 978-0-85905-661-8, (2017, New), 240 x 165, French flaps, 163pp, 450 grams

$55.00* + POST


153 B&W photos taken on the expedition, of Aboriginals, landscapes, settlers, expedition members.

Never before released photos of the Mjoberg expedition and an important collection that will create interest in camps on both sides of the creek.

pigeon_coverPigeon

by WC Charnley

ISBN 978-0-85905- 006-7, (2010, R),  31pp, illust, SC, B5, 60grams

$10.00* + POST


This narrative describes the hectic career of an Australian aboriginal who first learned all that the whites could teach him, and then turned against them. Placing himself at the head of a gang of "cattle-killers," he waged pitiless war on man and beast alike, and for over three years defied all efforts to capture him. Nemesis overtook him at last, but the cattlemen breathed a sigh of relief when the scourge of ranges was laid low.

ss_pigeon_coverSand and Stone – Pigeon

by Kevin Moran (With a Foreword by Peter Conole)

ISBN 978-0-85905-448-5, (2011, New), 126pp, illustrated, 360grams

$30.00* + POST


This is Pigeon's story and of those who suffered his reign of terror and the men who hunted him.

It is without academe historians' fashionable fabrications and elaborations, which in recent times have dissembled the past to rewrite history as they would like it, not as it was. They attack any historical writing that questions their spurious promotion of utopian aboriginal culture. They will not welcome this work.

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pilbara_bushmanPilbara Bushman

The Life Experience of W. Dunn

by Graham J. Wilson

ISBN 0 85905 130 7, (2002 reprint of 1989 edition), Soft Cover, 95pp, illustrated, 300grams

$22.00 + POST


An intriguing story of part-Aboriginal pastoralist Billy Dunn. 

While working with Pilbara pioneers Dunn was encouraged to learn and to achieve.  He graduated to managing stock stations and ultimately he achieved ownership of his own station.

Due to popular demand this book has been reprinted with new, updated material.

pilchowskiPilchowski's Crossing. The triple murder of Richard Pilchowski.

by Peter J. Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-770-7 (2020 New), A4, 41pp, 150 grams, $30.00*


The savage shovel nosed spearing of a sleeping man at Wyndham in 1913 has led to the murder being justified by vested interests. The true story is now revealed together with the stupidity and cupidity of the detractors.

pioneer_father_coverPioneer Father - Pioneer Son

York to the Gascoyne with the Collins family

by Bonnie Milne

ISBN 978-0-85905-071-5, (2010, new), A4, 136pp, illustrated, 380grams

$30.00* + POST


Charles Collins was born at Worth in Sussex, England on the 4th December 1825. He came to the colony of Western Australia on the Simon Taylor in 1842, as an indentured labourer. Four days after landing in Fremantle, he walked up the rugged Green Mount into the Avon district to work as a shepherd and there he lived the rest of his life.

pioneering_kimberleysPioneering in the Kimberleys

by Hamlet Cornish

ISBN 978-0-85905-027-2, (2011 new), 29pp, A4, illustrated, 120grams

16.50* + POST


Hamlet and Anthony Cornish of Pinjarra were part of the Murray Squatting Company, a syndicate formed to take up land in the Kimberley after the explorations of Alexander Forrest.

In 1880 they travelled in the schooner Mary Smith to take up the land which became Yeeda Station on the Fitzroy River.

During this expedition Anthony Cornish was fatally speared.

This booklet, with its fresh and vivid descriptions and without modification, is taken from the Hamlet’s original manuscript which was novelised and published as The call of the Kimberley in 1950.

pioneering_ningaloo_fishingPioneering Ningaloo Fishing and the Early History of Coral Bay

by Don Heather


ISBN 978-0-85905-860-5, (New, 2021), A4, Illustrated colour, 48pp, 160 grams, $30.00*


The interesting background to the origins of several of the favourite holiday destinations of WA. Don Heather pioneered the sport and commercial fishing at Ningaloo, Coral Bay and Exmouth.

The history hidden behind the glitz of tourism operators is an entertaining read.


Don Heather's Facebook Page

pioneers_nwPioneers of Nor'-West

Pastoral and Pearling 

by Lockier Clere Burges

ISBN 978-0-85905-438-6, (2008 reprint 1911), Soft Cover, A$, saddle stiched, 28pp, 120grams

$16.50* + POST


The author was an early pioneer of the NW and wrote thee reminiscences in 1911. The original copies are extremely rare.

They cover the first pastoral companies and pearlers, Camden Harbour, the Roebuck Bay expedition, aboriginal conflict, and the deaths Harding, Panter and Goldwyer.

pineers-of-the-forensic-div

Pioneers of the Forensic Division of the Western Australian Police Force.
 

by John Horton.
 

ISBN 978-0-85905-839-1, (2020), A4, 53 pages, heavily illustrated, 190 grams, $35.00*


Covers the development of all aspects of forensic work and the men who pioneered the techniques.

priracy_schooner_giftPiracy of the schooner Gift. Murderous Macassans at Condon in 1872.

Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-960-2, (New, 2022), A4, 23 pages, 100 grams, $22.00*


Macassans murdered sailors on the Gift and stole the vessel back to Indonesia. Later George Roe tracked them down, recovered the schooner and the ringleaders were hanged. 

the_pirates_of_the_erthelThe Pirates of the Ethel

by George Stacy, William Charnley, Peter J. Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-627-4, (2016, New), A4, illustrated, 31pp, 130grams

$16.50* + POST


In 1898 a pearler of Broome hired cheap foreign labour in Singapore. They promptly gutted him and his crew. Later the WA Police tracked them to Macassar and they were extradited and hung at Fremantle Prison. This is to be part of a series on piracy and the joys of multiculturalism.

police_coverPolice and other People

by Mick Liddelow - with a Foreword by Police Historian, Peter Conole.

ISBN 978-0-85905-157-6, (2011), A4, 146pp, illustrated, 420grams

$30.00* + POST


Vincent Wallace Liddelow, 1903-1982, joined the Police in 1925 as No. 1512. He was first attached to Central Police, then Fremantle and the Water Police. Afterwards he was stationed at Toodyay, Nullagine, Kalgoorlie, Albany, Perth, then back to Fremantle. As a plain clothes policeman he formed a great interest in Alcoholics Anonymous and helped many people although he was not an alcoholic himself. He retired after 38 years of service in the Police Force in 1963.

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