Download or read book Lasseter s Last Ride written by Ion Idriess and published by ETT Imprint. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (from The Spectator, May 1936) In his introduction to Lasseter's Last Ride (Cape, 7s. 6d.) Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood writes : "The annals of Central Australian exploration are tragic and heroic, but it is long indeed since I read a more moving story of endurance and heroism in the face of terrific odds than the epic which Mr. Ion Idriess has woven out of the last few months of the life of L. H. B. Lasseter." The reader will agree with this, and wonder why he has not heard of Mr. Idriess before. He is well known in Australia, but this is his first book to be published in England. It will not be his last, if the present one meets with the success it deserves. Having himself been a prospector, the story he has constructed out of the fragments of documentary evidence - a few reports, the barely legible diary and letters found buried near Lasseter's last camps - is probably very close to what actually happened. Harry Lasseter had once discovered a rich gold reef in unexplored west Central Australia. Owing to a faulty watch, the bearings he took were useless. An expedition was fitted out to locate it. From the first, misfortune dogged the steps of the party. Food ran short and they returned to the base-camp - all except Lasseter, who went on alone. When his two camels bolted he was left waterless in the desert. Blinded by sand and tortured by dysentry, he found the reef, but died shortly afterwards, deserted by a tribe of aborigines with whom he had tried to make friends. Mr. Idriess tells this story in a simple, virile style which is, in its intense economy, comparable to Hemingway at his best.
Download or read book Lasseter s Last Ride written by Ion Llewellyn Idriess and published by . This book was released on 1934 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Works of Ion L Idriess Lasseter s last ride written by Ion Llewellyn Idriess and published by . This book was released on 1938 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reef Madness written by Ernest Hunter and published by ETT Imprint. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's a tale that doesn't seem like it would be a winner; an improbable proposition of a ten-mile reef of gold in the middle of the continent, a cabal of scheming investors, a farrago of poor planning and preposterous publicity, the fiasco of the prematurely celebrated triumph of technology over unforgiving terrain, a dead prospector - and no gold. The Central Australian Gold Exploration Company had it all, and Lasseter's Last Ride was in the stores before the final chapter of the real-life debacle had closed. It was a runaway success. Angus and Robertson sold three million copies of Ion Idriess' sixty-some books before he died in 1979. But in 1931, as he was working on what would be Lasseter's Last Ride, he was looking for an angle. In filling the gaps between the few facts with detailed descriptions of lands and people he had never seen, he found it - and promoted it - in Magic and Mystery. Idriess' fictional account of the last months of the life of Harold Bell Lasseter gave birth to a legend that has repeated in dozens of books, films, poems, podcasts, websites and exhibitions, is memorialised in the names of a highway and a casino, and has spawned searches and scams that continue nearly a century later. Idriess was probably surprised at its success and chose not to tamper with a winning formula when inconvenient material soon emerged. To do that he had to control the evidence and continued to insist on his narrative's unimpeachable adherence to fact. Reef Madness exposes how Idriess confected his first successful book and why the story of a failed prospector became a quintessentially Australian myth.
Download or read book The A to Z of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia written by Alan Day and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-06-19 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging reference examines the history of, the search for, and the discovery of Australia, taking full account of the evidence for and the speculation surrounding possible earlier contacts by the Ancient Egyptians, Arabs, and Chinese seamen. Day brings the expeditions to life, expressing the desires that drove great sea captains deeper into turbulent waters searching for caches of spice, silks, and precious metals. Covers a wide variety of topics, including _ Seamen from eight nations _ The recovery of storm wrecked ships _ Diplomatic treaties _ Priority of discovery disputes _ Military and civil explorers and surveyors _ Topographical features _ Geographical terms and places _ Rivers and river system
Download or read book National Treasures from Australia s Great Libraries written by National Library of Australia and published by National Library Australia. This book was released on 2005 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National treasures from Australia's great libraries brings our national memory to life, for the first time showcasing more than 170 treasures that have helped define our nation -- where we come from, who we are and what sets us apart. Both a guide and a lasting record of a remarkable exhibition, this richly illustrated catalogue reveals the magnificent collections of Australia's National, State and Territory libraries.
Download or read book In Search of the Never Never written by Ann McGrath and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mickey Dewar made a profound contribution to the history of the Northern Territory, which she performed across many genres. She produced high‑quality, memorable and multi-sensory histories, including the Cyclone Tracy exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the reinterpretation of Fannie Bay Gaol. Informed by a great love of books, her passion for history was infectious. As well as offering three original chapters that appraise her work, this edited volume republishes her first book, In Search of the Never-Never. In Dewar’s comprehensive and incisive appraisal of the literature of the Northern Territory, she provides brilliant, often amusing insights into the ever-changing representations of a region that has featured so large in the Australian popular imagination
Download or read book Gold written by Iain McCalman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-03-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, gold has been the stuff of legends, fortunes, conflict and change. The discovery of gold in Australia150 years ago precipitated enormous developments in the newly settled land. The population and economy boomed in spontaneous cities. The effects on both the environment and indigenous Aboriginal peoples have been profound and lasting. In this book, a team of prominent historians and curators have collaborated to produce an innovative cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society.
Download or read book The Fierce Country written by Stephen Orr and published by Wakefield Press. This book was released on 2018-06-28 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fierce Country holds no malice, but neither pity. It just sits, and bakes, and waits. We do the rest. We provoke it when we mine above its aquifers. Weaken it, and ourselves, when we leave mountains of asbestos to blow away in the wind. Misunderstand it when we see it as nothing more than a resource. Resent it when it takes our children. The open spaces and isolated places outside Australia's cities have unsettled us from first European settlement to today - often with very good reason. In this nail-biting book combining the notorious and little-known, acclaimed author Stephen Orr has collected true stories that have shaped and continue to haunt the Australian psyche: mysteries, disappearances, mistreatment and murder. Fatal conflicts between an Aboriginal tracker and the police employers hunting his community. An itinerant conman picking up tips for the perfect murder from a famous novelist around a campfire on the Rabbit-Proof Fence. And that fateful day when Peter Falconio pulled over beside a desert highway. Together these tales chart an undercurrent of shifting cultural tensions as Australians find, lose and question who we are.
Download or read book Prospecting for Gold written by Ion Idriess and published by ETT Imprint. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I felt certain there must be gold in those hills, Jack', wrote a prospector to Ion Idriess, 'but I know very little about the game.' And so Jack Idriess wrote Prospecting for Gold in 1931. This is the 20th edition and known throughout Australia as the classic self-help manual for would-be prospectors. 'This book is written to help the new hand who ventures into the bush seeking gold... The "towny" prospector, with this book as a guide, will soon master methods of prospecting and the working of his find.' In an easy conversational tone, the author of Lasseter's Last Ride and Flynn of the Inland sets many a hopeful prospector on the road to discovering gold.
Download or read book Ion Idriess The Last Interview written by Tim Bowden and published by ETT Imprint. This book was released on 2022-06-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ion “Jack” Idriess (1889 – 1979) is recognised as one of Australia’s great storytellers, having published over 50 books including the Outback tales of Lasseter’s Last Ride, Flynn of the Inland, and The Cattle King alongside major histories of Broken Hill, Broome and Cooktown. This book is his last interview in 1975, prompted by the then-young Tim Bowden, for a possible ABC Radio program that did not eventuate due to Idriess's fading voice. Within this book Idriess talks of his early years in Broken Hill, he tells of his earliest writing for the Bulletin, on living and photographing Aboriginal tribes in the Kimberlys and Cape York; on the writing of his books like Madman’s Island and My Mate Dick; his life with the pearlers of Broome and Thursday Island; on the joys of prospecting, living in the Wild, and on Lasseter and his diary. Full of colourful characters and true stories, Ion Idriess allows us into his unbridled enthusiasm for Australian and Aboriginal history.
Download or read book The Outback Within written by Mark Byrne and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it about the Australian outback? For nearly two centuries, narratives of outback journeys have been suffused with the aura of death. Why? It is not just that the desert is big, dry, hot and apparently empty. The outback is Australia’s “mythological crucible,” and journeys there have become rites of passage. It is where settler Australians go to die and perhaps be reborn. This book explores the landscape of this evolving national mythology. It argues that a more conscious engagement with the process of symbolic death and rebirth is needed for Australians to enter into a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationship to the land and its Indigenous people.
Download or read book Seeking the Centre written by Roslynn Doris Haynes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The desert has a hypnotic presence in Australian culture, simultaneously alluring and repellent. The 'Centre' is distant and unknown to most Australians, yet has become a symbol of the country. This exciting book, highly illustrated in full colour, reveals the singular impact that the desert, both geographical and metaphorical, has had on Australian culture. At the heart of the book is the profound relationship that Aboriginal Australians have with the desert, and the complex ways in which they have been seen by white people in this context.
Download or read book Lasseter s Diary written by Lance Harold Bell Lasseter and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Great Australian Stories written by Graham Seal and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Folklore.
Download or read book Return to Uluru written by Mark McKenna and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Return to Uluru explores the cold case that strikes at the heart of Australia’s white supremacy—the death of an Aboriginal man in 1934; the iconic life of a white, "outback" police officer; and the continent's most sacred and mysterious landmark. Inside Cardboard Box 39 at the South Australian Museum’s storage facility lies the forgotten skull of an Aboriginal man who died eighty-five years before. His misspelled name is etched on the crown, but the many bones in boxes around him remain unidentified. Who was Yokununna, and how did he die? His story reveals the layered, exploitative white Australian mindset that has long rendered Aboriginal reality all but invisible. When policeman Bill McKinnon’s Aboriginal prisoners escape in 1934, he’s determined to get them back. Tracking them across the so called "dead heart" of the country, he finds the men at Uluru, a sacred rock formation. What exactly happened there remained a mystery, even after a Commonwealth inquiry. But Mark McKenna’s research uncovers new evidence, getting closer to the truth, revealing glimpses of indigenous life, and demonstrating the importance of this case today. Using McKinnon’s private journal entries, McKenna paints a picture of the police officer's life to better understand how white Australians treat the center of the country and its inhabitants. Return to Uluru dives deeply into one cold case. But it also provides a searing indictment of the historical white supremacy still present in Australia—and has fascinating, illuminating parallels to the growing racial justice movements in the United States.
Download or read book Lasseter s Reef written by Bill Decarli and published by Boolarong Biographies. This book was released on 2021-09-02 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fact or myth? Harold Bell Lasseter and his claim of finding a vast gold-bearing reef in Central Australia has continually been surrounded in mystery. Yet his ill-fated death in the Australian outback, where the land is unforgiving to the careless and the foolhardy, is relatively undisputed. Despite Lasseter taking secrets to a lonely desert grave in 1931, the story of the elusive gold reef has become a holy grail for explorers from near and far. One such explorer is Vietnam veteran Bill Decarli, who has spent the best part of forty years unravelling one of Australia’s greatest mysteries. On his maiden voyage to the outback in 1991, instead of heading towards Western Australia like other diehard explorers, Bill reversed his map and headed east towards Queensland. It was there that he struck upon the infamous gold reef, one that Lasseter had never laid eyes on, yet some how had been made aware of its existence. Based on significant new insights, and with a further nine trips to the reef, the key to putting all the pieces together, for Bill, was a man who barely left any trace of his own existence — until now. A story of adventurous hearts, honesty and resolve, in this new twist, Bill unearths how Lasseter’s claim was another man’s story, the exact location of the reef and how the reef stands to have a bright future.
