Hesperian Press

Aborigines of the King George Sound Region
1836 - 1838

The collected works of James Browne (1821-1887)

Compiled and annotated by Ken Macintyre and Barbara Dobson

ISBN 978-0-85905-498-0, 2011 New, A4, 37pp, 140 grams

$22.00*

The collected known works of James Browne have been annotated with explanatory notes by Ken Macintyre and Dr Barbara Dobson in order to provide a biographical and ethnohistorical context. Where Browne has omitted to use the traditional Noongar terms for artefacts and known ceremonial rituals, these have been provided in the annotations.

Browne's collected works provide a valuable contribution to the historical ethnography of indigenous southwestern Australia. His perceptions are insightful, often analytical and in the case of Aboriginal title to the land, he leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that the original inhabitants were 'owners'.

Above the 26^th

by Les Newman

ISBN 978-0-85905-834-6, (new, 2020), A4, 36 pages, 140 grams, $30.00*  

Les went North in 1960. Darwin, Carnarvon, Gascoyne Junction, Denham, Exmouth, Onslow, Kununurra, Wyndham, Karratha, with characters in between and around. The idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of the outer lands are described in detail. One wonders just how the system survived.

Across the Great Thirst Land.

R.T. Maurice.

ISBN 978-0-85905-934-3, (R190*, 2022), A4, 28 pages, illustrated, 105 grams, $22.00*

Maurice’s expedition from Fowlers Bay to Wyndham in 1902. A great story which is not well known.

Adventures of a Trepang Fisher

by George H. Sunter

ISBN 0 85905 234 6, (1997 reprint of 1937 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 292pp, illustrated, 380grams

$30.00 + POST

A Northern Territory classic.

George Sunter, pastoralist, buffalo shooter, soldier and author relates his life and adventures of a trepang fisher off Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

He was engaged in trepang fishing from 1928 to 1932 when the market collapsed. Trepang, also known as beche-de-mer, are semi cylindrical tapering animals found in abundance on the sandy shores of Arnhem Land. Trepang was sold to the Chinese who used it primarily in soup and regarded the food as a delicacy and as a aphrodisiac.

The Adventures of Louis De Rougemont

by himself

ISBN 978-0-85905-648-9, (1898 R 2016), A4, heavily illustrated, Facsimile, 180 pages, 502 grams

$40.00* + POST

Unleashed onto the unsuspecting world in London, 1898, the tale is of an adventurer wrecked in the Australian north and surviving the wilds with its cannibals and creatures. It confused the establishment for many decades with its faction. For the last century those fortunate enough to have read the book have laughed at how the dons of science fought with the equally preposterous tales of cynical Australian bushmen. He removed Ananias from his position of leading liar forever. His stories however still live on among the knowing and continue to strike strange chords among those attuned to old ways.

"The Afghan Problem"
and
their camels

by I Murray, P Bianchi, M Bloomfield & P J Bridge

ISBN 978 0 85905 462 1, (2008), A4, 160 pp, illustrated, soft cover, 450 grams

$30.00* + POST

Afghans are now looked upon somewhat romantically but in the 1890s rush they were a constant problem for almost everyone. This collection of articles shows the antagonism of the bush against their dirty habits and truculent demeanor. Their camels were little different

After Uneasy Atoms – Uranium camps on the Northern Australian Rivers, 1950-1960

by Hervey J. Newton

ISBN 978-0-85905-571-0, (2014, new), A4, 86 pp, illustrated, 250 g

$22.00* + POST

Rum Jungle, El Sherana, Ranger, Nabarlek and Sleisbeck were names that resounded in the mining world when atomic power was viewed as the future. This book is the story of NAUC's Sleisbeck deposit and the men who developed it in the then wild tropics.

Agnew

by Alex Palmer

ISBN 085905 267 2, (2000 new), Soft Cover, laminated, 142 pages, illustrated, 195grams

$22.00 + POST

The history of the goldfield's town, its rise and fall and the life of its people.

AIRFLASH

by Bob Sheppard

ISBN 978-0-85905-890-2, (2021, New) A5, illustrated and including maps, 47 pages, $15.00 + $3.00 Postage Australia wide.

In early 1942 Japanese forces were advancing through Southeast Asia and there was a real concern Australia would be invaded. In a small tin shed at Island Point on the southern end of Jurien Bay in Australia's remote Mid-West, a guard and two Royal Australian Air Force wireless operators watched for enemy activity and monitored their radio. Through the static they heard a call. The three men were terrified by the radio conversation that resulted. An English speaking Japanese wireless operator aboard a submarine somewhere near Jurien Bay spoke directly to the men telling them he knew who they were, how many were at the camp and their location.

This is one of the stories collected by Bob Sheppard and is included in AIRFLASH: A Guide to Coast Watch Posts in the Mid-West of Western Australia 1942-1944, Royal Australian Air Force. Bob provides details, including the locations, of the RAAF Coast Watch Posts established between Port Gregory and Burns Beach in No. 3 of his MID-WEST AT WAR series of publications.

The book is available from the author. 

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call or SMS 0407770139.

Albany Resident Magistrates. 1850-1855.

by Dianne and Ashton Cavanagh.

ISBN 978-0-85905-892-6. (New, 2021), A4, 71 pages, indexed, 270 grams, $45.00*

The letterbook of John Randall Phillips and associates was lost to WA when taken back to Ireland. Now the full text is transcribed, edited, and indexed.

This is a valuable source of information on the early colonists and the local aborigines.

All Australians Now

by Willem van Ravenstein

ISBN 978-0-85905-295-5, (2010 new), illustrated, 221pp, 510grams

$35.00 + POST

For the ten-year old Dutch boy who arrived with his migrant parents at Fremantle one intolerably hot day in 1950, Australia was an alien, almost incomprehensible land.

A clear-eyed observer with an outsider’s perspective, the child grew up and was educated in postwar Perth, where he was gradually transformed into an Australian.

The experience was a complex, testing and sometimes confusing process.

All Gold

The Death of Stephen Grace

by Peter J. Bridge,Gail Dreezens and Moya Sharp

ISBN 0 85905 398 9, (2007 new), Soft Cover, A4, 30pp, saddle, illustrated, 135 grams

$16.00* + POST

Grace was the head of APLA, the prospectors association, and was murdered by blacks in 1907, while on a prospecting expedition along the RPF.

All in My Stride

by Richard Harris

ISBN 0 85905 260 5, (1999 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 216 pp, illustrated, 230grams

$22.00 + POST

All In My Stridestells of John Gilmour's early days living in a group settlement in the South West of Western Australia, the struggle for survival during the Great Depression, enlistment in the Army as a fit young man, and his coming to terms with major damage to his eyesight through malnutrition in Changi goal. Worse was to come - nightmare years as a slave labourer in Japan. He was a 2/4th machine gunner.

All Men Back - All One Big Mistake

by W.A. (Bill) Bee

ISBN 0 85905 254 0, (1998 new), Soft Cover, 156pp, illustrated, 230grams

$22.00 + POST

An amazing story told by an Australian sailor of his experiences immediately before and after capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

As a signalman on the flag deck of HMAS Perth, Bill (Buzzer to his mates) Bee gives an eye witness account of events leading up to debacle of the Java Sea Battle on 27 February 1942, and final annihilation of Allied Naval Forces defending Java on the 1 March 1942, in Sunda Straits.

Then as a Prisoner of War for 3½ years the author takes the reader on a journey that describes vividly the anxieties and perils he and his mates experienced while travelling over vast distances of land and sea to satisfy their captors' forced labour requirements. This includes building the Burma-Thai Railway to coal-mining in Japan.

The narrative begins in Fremantle when HMAS Perth arrives in February 1942 and finishes when the author returns home in Perth, Western Australia in 1945.

The Alligators of Cambridge Gulf 

by W.C. Charnley.

ISBN 978-0-85905-694-6, (R, 2017), A5, $10.00*

The Alluvialists. The Kalgoorlie Riot of 1898.

Rod Moncrieff.

ISBN 978-1-875778-13-2, 124 pages, A4, illustrated, 370 grams, $40.00*

The fight of the alluvial prospectors and miners against the Forrest government’s mining laws. Laws against alluvial mining on reef and lode leases.

‘Ten Foot Ned’ Wittenoom and the government’s intransigence against the alluvialists created riots that led to the gaoling of prospectors.

Their slogan of “Fair Play, Fair Laws and Justice to All” rings true forever.

This is now a little known but important part of WA mining history. 

Along the Ashburton

by Rhonda McDonald

ISBN 0 85905 288 5, (2002 new), Soft Cover, section sewn, 278 pages, illustrated, 385grams

$35.00 + POST

The history of Onslow and the stations of the Ashburton.

Rhonda McDonald (nee Stidworthy) spent much of her childhood and married life in country similar to that of which she has written. She commenced her schooling at Onslow in 1936 and finished it at the Presentation Convent Carnarvon, along with some of the people mentioned in this book.

After leaving school Rhonda worked on the Carnarvon telephone exchange before becoming Gascoyne Traders' first secretary. Eventually she married Allan McDonald of Mangaroon Station, where they lived until their retirement to Perth.

Along the Coast

BY Ship Northwards

edited by Peter J Bridge, with a foreword by maritime historian and artist Ross Shardlow

ISBN 978-0-85905-604-5, (R, N2015), A4, illustrated, 212 pages, 580 grams

$50.00* + POST

The forgotten role of coastal shipping in both supplying the North and keeping Westralia in contact with the outside world. A collection of 25 descriptions of voyages along the coast from Eucla to Wyndham, interstate and to south and east Asia, in the period 18 80s to the 1960s.

Along the Road to Cue and other verses

by Andree Hayward

ISBN 978-0-85905-136-1, (2010 new), 106pp, illustrated, 156grams

$22.00 + POST

Andree Hayward was a lawyer, poet and newspaper editor and one of the greatest influences on the developing high culture of the Westralian goldfields. This collection of his verse, a biography and literary criticism fulfils promises made by Hesperian to Hayward's grand-daughter over 25 years ago, and to Beverley Smith, the first of 'modern times' to recognize the value of a virile goldfields literature.

Chris Holyday has researched and edited this expanded collection, marking the 60th anniversary of Andree Hayward' death.

Alphabetical Index to the 1954 “List of Cancelled Gold Mining Leases Which Have Produced Gold”

by P. J. Bridge

ISBN 0 85905 005 X, (1972 New), Soft Cover, 68pp, A3, 400grams, $50.00*

This is an essential companion to the List of Cancelled GMLs produced by the Mines Dept which is in district order. With the alpha index and the name of a GML its locality can be found.