eBook Listing

The Kelly Gang: Or, The Outlaws of the Wombat Ranges was produced by George Wilson Hall, the owner of the Mansfield Guardian in 1879. It is the first and rarest book on Ned Kelly, there being only four copies known to exist, with none in private hands. Hall was close to several informants and appears to have exceptional first-hand accounts of Stringybark Creek and other Kelly encounters. This new edition includes rare photographs of the participants from the period.

The Kwinkan is a satirical parable surrounding a mysterious narrator who is part-politician, part Queensland property developer, and the forces at work in the Asia-Pacific region. It deals with international corporatism, political ambitions in an age of decaying colonialism, the clashes of competing mythologies, and the play of the dark, atavistic powers which manifest themselves in sexual disease and violence. These forces act on the characters, sometimes to unite strange bedfellows and at other times to sever connections either at a personal or national level.

 

PRAISE FOR MUDROOROO'S PREVIOUS NOVELS

'[Wildcat Screaming is] full of insight into the nature of man inside and outside of institutions and the sources of strength into which people dip in order to maintain hope and to survive.' - Roberta Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald

 

'Master of the Ghost Dreaming is a real page-turner. The prose is lyrical, yet simple, the images rich and ironic... an exciting, moving and engaging novel.' - Sophie Masson, Australian Book Review

When Eric Maidstone was found dead near Bore Ten, just west of the Dingo-proof Fence, the first thought of those who discovered his body was that he might have been attacked by the rogue camel known as The Lake Frome Monster. But camels don't carry guns... and Maidstone had a bullet-hole in his chest which put the Monster in the clear. So who killed young Maidstone? Bony, disguised as a worker on the Fence, intends to find out…

 

There are sand storms galore, there are mad camels, there is personal and professional deprivation, there are rabbits by the millions. In this typical Upfield country there is the boredom of loneliness, there is the sheer weight of the Australian outback; it is vintage Upfield... - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.

These simple sketches and photographs of Territory life centre around the young Aboriginal girl Bett-Bett (Dolly Bonson) and her dog Sue; as she appears from the Never-Never, stays awhile, learns a little, laughs a lot, wonders much, and finally returns to the bush again.

This early tale of life in the Northern Territory was first published in 1905, and was followed up bby the classic We of the Never-Never, the author's memoir of life with her family on Elsey Station.

Joe Thompson was born in the small mining town of Minmi, north of Newcastle in 1889. This book follows his life there as a Pupil Teacher, to the Balmain area, where he played soccer for both Balmain and New South Wales, to a role as an instructor with the fledgling Royal Australian Navy. His marriage to Marjorie Roberts took them to Mudgee, where he continued teaching and began a family in 1921. Written by Joe's eldest son, Geoffrey Thompson, now 97, we explore Australia between the wars, early motoring up and down New South Wales, and family holidays at Durras, till Joe's sudden death in 1942.

Jamie watches the Queensland town beneath him from the sheltered branches of the mango tree. Through days of shimmering heat choked with red dust to days of rainstorms bringing mud to the mangroves, everything is as it should be - the sights and sounds and smells are as familiar to him as the everlasting childhood in which they appear. Then everything changes overnight when he falls in love. A tender, fumbling first love that flowed and ebbed just as suddenly. And in its wake came death, the sudden shocking death of someone he loved.

 

Ronald McKie "...is a true professional... a super word-handler... This is a novel which bears the mark of the craftsman who is master of the language." - from the report of judges of the Miles Franklin Award, 1974.

'...distant hooves beat time with the name. Nick Nick Nicholas Nick, they cantered. A melody began that danced along on the magical words...'

It's 1960 in an Australian country town - a time well before smartphones and social media. Fourteen-year-old Sandra, a shy but ambitious piano student, is on a journey of discovery. She's secretly in love with Nick Morgan, but he's already left school and hardly knows she exists.

Everything changes when she finally gets to know Nick at a polocrosse carnival. Even her best friend and Sandra's beautiful piano become less important. But she is swept out of her depth by events which test the value of her friendships and challenge her in ways she could never have imagined.

'A truly absorbing tale for teenagers.' - Barbara Ker Wilson AM, University of Queensland Press (Ret.)

'There are so many beautiful passages, lovingly felt moments and deft touches that will strike the reader back to the purity of their own childhood, first love and love of the land that make for inescapable reading. I can thoroughly recommend it.' - Tom Thompson, ABC Radio 702

'A delightful coming-of-age story about first love, teenage dreams and the courage to face reality... all told through a filter of beautiful music...' - Candida Baker

In the Grampian Mountains, two girl hitch-hikers have disappeared without trace, and the policeman sent to investigate has been murdered. Bonaparte visits the lonely hotel where the girls were last seen, and meets up with the suave proprietor, his strangely terrified father, an ex-US paratrooper with a penchant for knife-throwing, and a talking parrot…

 

All in all, this is a high suspense drama, and a fine Upfield story. - From The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne.

 

Bony - a unique figure among top-flight detectives - BBC

Somewhere within Arthur Upfield's travelling dray were the clues to uncovering three acts of murder involving the grifter, Snowy Rowles. Once Upfield had published his crime thriller, The Sands of Windee, West Australian police gave chase, starting with the esteemed author of Bony...

An intriguing case for Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte begins on a calm October day in an Australian seaside near Bermagui. Three men set out to sea for a day's fishing... and do not return. Despite intensive searches, no trace of the men or their boat is found, until, weeks later, a passing trawler hauls in a gruesome catch - the head of one of the missing fishermen. It is quite clear that its owner was murdered with a pistol shot. But by whom, and why, is for Bony to find out.

 

A thriller with a new kind of thrill. - Sheffield Morning Telegraph

The nude body of a man is discovered entombed in the walls of Split Point Lighthouse on the south-east coast of Australia. Inspector Bonaparte wonders why a coffin is moved at night, who was the girl struggling with Dick Lake on the cliff tops, and what caused the Bully Buccaneers to deal in death. An ordinary policeman could afford to fail, but Bony, never...

 

The story takes place at Split Point, 80 miles between Anglesea and Lorne... The story is enlivened - and made more stark by contrast - by a series of Dickensian characters who are unexcelled in Upfield and perhaps elsewhere as well. Despite the solemnity of the occasion for the visit, Upfield maintains a kind of corpse-like humour which is very amusing... The whole book is first-class Upfield and first-class crime fiction. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne

The nude body of a man is discovered entombed in the walls of Split Point Lighthouse on the south-east coast of Australia. Inspector Bonaparte wonders why a coffin is moved at night, who was the girl struggling with Dick Lake on the cliff tops, and what caused the Bully Buccaneers to deal in death. An ordinary policeman could afford to fail, but Bony, never...

 

The story takes place at Split Point, 80 miles between Anglesea and Lorne... The story is enlivened - and made more stark by contrast - by a series of Dickensian characters who are unexcelled in Upfield and perhaps elsewhere as well. Despite the solemnity of the occasion for the visit, Upfield maintains a kind of corpse-like humour which is very amusing... The whole book is first-class Upfield and first-class crime fiction. - from The Spirit of Australia by Ray Browne

In October 1878, Victorian Police were instructed to find the Kelly Gang, using the first ever photo I.D. ; but the Kellys found them first...

One of the rarest of all Kellyana, The Origin, Career and Destruction of the Kelly Gang has been out of print in any form for over 100 years. Fully illustrated with contemporary engravings and photographs.

Set during the Gold Rush days, The Promised Land concludes Mudrooroo's fantastical voyage through the history of Australia around the time of its colonisation by the British. This is satire at its most cutting, and entertaining.

Sir George Augustus returns to the Great South Land with his young wife, Lady Lucy, intending to establish a mission to educate and 'Christianise' the native people. When he hears that gold has been found on the land, his missionary zeal increases. Accompanied by the mysterious white woman, Amelia Fraser, and a troop of native police, he sets out on an expedition to the diggings. As Sir George journeys into what he hopes is a golden future, his past begins to creep up on him, and those he thought were dead return to confront him.

The final book in the Master of the Ghost Dreaming series.

In times past there was an Aboriginal man called Cumbo Gunnerah. His people called him The Red Kangaroo. He was a clever chief and a mighty fighter (this man from Gunnedah). Later, the white people of this place called him The Red Chief.

It would be hard to find a more satisfying hero than the young warrior Red Kangaroo, who by his mental and physical prowess became a chief of his tribe - the revered and powerful Red Chief of the Gunnedah district in northern New South Wales. His story is a first-rate tale of adventure but it is something more - a true story handed down from generation to generation by its hero's tribe and given by the last survivor, King Bungaree, to the white settlers of the district.