Download or read book The Best Australian Bush Stories written by Jim Haynes and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories that take us from the Mallee to the back of Bourke and beyond . an indispensable collection about the enduring appeal of the Australian bush.
Download or read book Outback Heroes written by Evan McHugh and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2005-08-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The men and women you'll meet in this fascinating book come in all shapes and sizes, from convicts and engineers to cattleduffers and anthropologists. These remarkable Australians share an extraordinary ability to survive the rigours of the bush. In Outback Heroes, Evan McHugh brings together his favourite ripping yarns from the Australian frontier. He begins with escaped convict William Buckley, who emerged from the forest after thirty-two years in the wild; re-examines the legends of the Man from Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda; recounts one of the most stunning rescues in Australian history; and relives the 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony. These and other true stories of courage and ingenuity remind us how the Australian character was forged – through encounters with the bush, desert and outback.
Download or read book The Bush written by Don Watson and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2014-09-24 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Australians live in cities and cling to the coastal fringe, yet our sense of what an Australian is – or should be – is drawn from the vast and varied inland called the bush. But what do we mean by 'the bush', and how has it shaped us? Starting with his forebears' battle to drive back nature and eke a living from the land, Don Watson explores the bush as it was and as it now is: the triumphs and the ruination, the commonplace and the bizarre, the stories we like to tell about ourselves and the national character, and those we don't. Via mountain ash and mallee, the birds and the beasts, slaughter, fire, flood and drought, swagmen, sheep and their shepherds, the strange and the familiar, the tragedies and the follies, the crimes and the myths and the hope – here is a journey that only our leading writer of non-fiction could take us on. At once magisterial in scope and alive with telling, wry detail, The Bush lets us see our landscape and its inhabitants afresh, examining what we have made, what we have destroyed, and what we have become in the process. No one who reads it will look at this country the same way again. 'Nothing he has written quite matches the wonders of The Bush . . . There is no dull page or even lifeless sentence between its covers and my urge is that if anyone wants a full blast of what Australia is, was, or might be, thrust The Bush into their hands. Watson seems to have been preparing to write it all his life, from when he was a small boy (born 1949) open to wonders on his family's Gippsland dairy farm . . . It's the unalloyed wonder of that small boy . . . that guides the reader most of all . . . a fountaining freshness of spirit that gives everything he sees and does the vivacity of being sighted for the first time.' Roger McDonald, The Age 'Flawlessly elegant writing . . . But this is excellent, hard-headed history, too . . . Utterly mesmerising and entrancing . . . A challenge to contemplate what it really is about this country that makes us who we think we are . . . A literary-historical odyssey.' Paul Daley, The Guardian (Australia) 'A loving rumination on Australia, the landmass, and those who live on it and from it . . . Watson refuses to be captured by easy categorisations or received opinion . . . The writing is crisp, witty and sardonic . . . Watson is an original, with an authentic, prophetic voice.' John Hirst, The Monthly 'An overwhelmingly affectionate portrait, one that's never sentimental or indulgently nostalgic, and one that defiantly resists lamentation . . . There is no doubt that The Bush stands with Bill Gammage's The Biggest Estate on Earth as one of the most important books published on the history of this country in recent years . . . The Bush is the crown in Watson's oeuvre, a magnificent, sprawling ode to the best in Australia, a challenge to us all to find new ways of loving the country.' The Saturday Paper 'Don Watson's magnificent, celebratory, contradictory study of the Australian bush will challenge the national imagination . . . An amiable, learned, playful and engrossing book . . . [A] great, succulent magic pudding of a book . . . Most of what we read is nothing like we would have expected . . . There is a sense that an amiable and eloquent uncle is telling us everything piquant he knows about theology and culture and land use and the beasts and flora and families of the bush.' Thomas Keneally, Weekend Australian 'The power of this book does come from the way Watson positions himself as both an insider and outsider to the Australian bush . . . A meditation on Australia itself through a reflection on the bush.' Frank Bongiorno, Australian Book Review 'A sprawling, fascinating book . . . Watson has pulled off a marvel, a book that educates and fascinates at the same time as it calls for action to preserve some things before they're lost. The best part, though, is his prose: bare and dry, with a dark sense of humour. A bit like the country he's describing.' Margot Lloyd, The Advertiser (Adelaide) 'Every now and again a book comes out that is so groundbreaking it causes you to think about a particular subject in a radically different light. Don Watson's The Bush: Travels in The Heart of Australia is one such work; a masterpiece of research, inquiry and poetry that challenges our basic assumptions of the Outback. Watson . . . has pulled off a dazzling achievement with The Bush, blending philosophy with science and storytelling . . . A beautifully written and thoughtful book.' Johanna Leggatt, Weekly Times 'Elegant, intricate, sprawling and sometimes harsh . . . [Watson] explores the bush with a mix of academic insight and campfire yarn . . . In a word: hypnotic.' Jeff Maynard, Herald Sun 'His romantic prose moves seamlessly through autobiographical tales to discuss the landscapes and histories that have shaped Australia.' National Geographic 'One of my favourite reads this year. What a writer he is . . . You find yourself sneaking off from others to be with it.' Kathleen Noonan, Courier-Mail 'Vast in scope, richly sourced, soaring and poetic, this journey to the heart of Australia has been rightly compared in significance to Bill Gammage's The Biggest Estate on Earth.' Barbara Farrelly, South Coast Register 'The Bush is his homage to Australia's mythic hinterland. Watson travels through the Mallee and the Murray-Darling, to WA's wheat belt and beyond, meeting people, talking, listening. Good writing that engages with Australia's past is a rare beast, too often bound up in the need for ''balance''. Watson has the freedom to ignore the rules; he allows himself to opine and he yarns at will. A delightful read.' Mark MacLean, Newcastle Herald
Download or read book The Best Australian Bush Stories written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australia's national character and spirit have always been defined, rightly or wrongly, by 'the bush'. This entertaining, thought - provoking, humorous, nostalgic and, above all, highly readable collection of stories for the modern reader shows why the romance endures. From Jim Haynes, one of our most successful and prolific Australiana authors, comes a collection of classic and iconic stories from the remote outback, cattle station, wheat farm and rural town. The bush is where our iconic characters are found living in, taking refuge or exploring, whether an Aborigine, explorer, squatter, bushranger or stockman. Here are the big names of Australian bush writing and the lesser known writers who have been forgotten, but whose reputations are long overdue for revival. Enjoy these bush gems by Henry Lawson, Marcus Clarke, Banjo Paterson, Henry Handel Richardson, Steele Rudd, Kenneth Cook, Brian James, EO Schlunke, AC McCay, D'Arcy Niland and more.
Download or read book Great Australian Stories written by Graham Seal and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2011 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From pioneer tales to urban myths, folklore expert Graham Seal has gathered some of the best Australian stories from around the country, and this?new edition contains?10 extra stories. Australia has a rich tradition of story telling that reflects?a unique history and experience. Great Australian Stories is the most representative collection available of the stories?Aussies tell about themselves. Graham Seal explains where the stories come from, and why even the outright lies reveal a truth of sorts.
Download or read book Great Australian Outback Teaching Stories written by Bill Marsh and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beyond the black stump to the Australian Alps; in schools on stations, missions, mines and over the air, it takes a special kind of person to be an outback teacher. Back then, not only did we have to teach the three Rs but also sewing, arts and craft, music, physical education - you name it. Plus there were the duties of gardener, cleaner, nurse, registrar, office administrator, free milk dispenser, librarian and, on occasions, school bus driver. Oh, and in one school I was even responsible for 'mother craft'. And being male and just nineteen, as I was at the time, you might imagine my surprise when a young girl asked me, 'Sir, what's the best milk for babies?' Master storyteller Bill 'Swampy' Marsh has travelled the width and breadth of Australia to bring together yet another memorable collection of stories. This time he has met with many of our extraordinary outback teachers and their students whose recollections so perfectly capture those special days of growing up in the bush.
Download or read book Great Bush Stories written by Graham Seal and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Graham Seal has the knack of the storyteller' - Warren Fahey AM The tradition of yarns from the bush goes back to the earliest days in Australia. Colourful rural characters and dramatic incidents parade through our history and folklore, entertaining and appalling us in equal measure. Graham Seal has gathered classic and little-known stories from when most Australians lived outside the cities, and communication was by dirt track or boat. There's the time when farmers used their Ferguson tractors to save a town from floodwaters; when soldiers took on mobs of emus devastating the wheat crop; the Lady Bushranger who lived rough in a cave; Bob the railway dog who hitched rides on trains for years; and the many dubious strategies devised against the pesky bush fly over the years. True or more than a little exaggerated, these stories reflect the distinctive way of life of rural and outback folk which continues to this day.
Download or read book The Killer Koala written by Kenneth Cook and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wombat Stew written by Marcia Kay Vaughan and published by Scholastic Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this classic Australian picture book, a dingo catches a wombat and wants to cook him in a stew. But all the other bush animals have a plan to save their friend. They trick the dingo into using mud, feathers, flies, bugs and gumnuts in his wombat stew, and the result is a stew the dingo will never forget!
Download or read book Australia s Most Unbelievable True Stories written by Jim Haynes and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2016-11-23 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that in 1932 the Australian army was called out to wage war on an invading army of 20,000...emus? Or that the first royal personage to arrive in Australia was the King of Iceland and he came as a convict? And how about the spooky phenomenon of the mischief-making Guyra Ghost? From Jim Haynes, one of our most successful and prolific tellers of yarns and bush tales, comes this ultimate collection of unbelievable true Australian stories: the unknown, the forgotten, the surprising, the truly weird and the completely inexplicable. Told with a refreshing understatement, Australia's Most Unbelievable True Stories vividly evokes a vanishing Australia when anything was possible, when characters were larger than life and the bizarre and strange were normal.
Download or read book The Best Australian Yarns written by Jim Haynes and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2013-11-28 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Best Australian Yarns is a substantial and definitive collection of factual and fanciful Aussie stories, humor and anecdotes—the result of decades of researching popular Aussie culture and history and yarning to mates and other colorful characters from all parts of Australia and all walks of life. This collection includes tall stories from the bush, reminiscences from the racetrack and shearing shed, railway yarns, stories from the world of show business, Aboriginal legends and humor, digger yarns from both world wars, ghost stories, monsters, bunyips, and yowies... and many things you never knew about our amazing history and the characters who made it—the pioneers, heroes, convicts, bushrangers, eccentrics, and brave and forgotten men and women whose fascinating lives and achievements created the Aussie spirit that we all love. While the stories range from poignant to hilarious, many simply describe unusual coincidences, strange occurrences, or simple everyday humorous events with a refreshing understatement that vividly evokes a vanishing Australia where looking for a good laugh was a key component of a cheekier national character and a simpler lifestyle.
Download or read book The Songlines written by Bruce Chatwin and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International Bestseller: The famed travel writer and author of In Patagonia traverses Australia, exploring Aboriginal culture and song—and humanity’s origins. Long ago, the creators wandered Australia and sang the landscape into being, naming every rock, tree, and watering hole in the great desert. Those songs were passed down to the Aboriginals, and for centuries they have served not only as a shared heritage but as a living map. Sing the right song, and it can guide you across the desert. Lose the words, and you will die. Into this landscape steps Bruce Chatwin, the greatest travel writer of his generation, who comes to Australia to learn these songs. A born wanderer, whose lust for adventure has carried him to the farthest reaches of the globe, Chatwin is entranced by the cultural heritage of the Aboriginals. As he struggles to find the deepest meaning of these ancient, living songs, he is forced to embark on a much more difficult journey—through his own history—to reckon with the nature of language itself. Part travelogue, part memoir, part novel, The Songlines is one of Bruce Chatwin’s final—and most ambitious—works. From the author of the bestselling In Patagonia and On the Black Hill, a sweeping exploration of a landscape, a people, and one man’s history, it is the sort of book that changes the reader forever. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bruce Chatwin including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
Download or read book Great Australian Outback Nurses Stories written by Bill Marsh and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories and memories that capture the experience of nursing in the bush, gathered by the inimitable Bill 'Swampy' Marsh, bestselling author of Great Australian Flying Doctor Stories and Great Australian Police Stories. I've been a trained nurse for almost sixty years now and I've never once gone to work thinking, I don't want to do this. In fact, I've always said how it's been a privilege to be a nurse in areas where there were no counsellors, no psychologists, nothing – just me. With hearts as big as the outback, rural and remote nurses are a dedicated and gutsy bunch who work selflessly to care for their communities, often in isolated and inhospitable conditions, with few resources but plenty of experience, courage and care. Outback nurses deal with it all: broken limbs, labour pains, snake bites, sunburnt backpackers, lost explorers, vaccinations, defibrillations – even the occasional crook cattle dog. One thing they are never short of is stories to tell. This memorable and eye-opening collection of real-life accounts from nurses in the Australian bush is by turns inspiring, poignant, heartbreaking and hilarious – and Swampy should know. It was while he was researching this book he had a near-fatal fall from a cliff in Kakadu, and experienced first-hand the skill and heroism of these outback nurses in extraordinary situations. Bill 'Swampy' Marsh is an award-winning writer and performer of stories, songs and plays. He spent most of his youth in rural south-western NSW and now lives in Adelaide. Swampy is one of ABC books' bestselling authors of Australian stories; this is his sixteenth book.
Download or read book Larrikins Bush Tales and Other Great Australian Stories written by Graham Seal and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-03 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yarns, legends, myths, jokes and anecdotes are our national lifeblood. The home - grown and borrowed tales, told and re - told over generations, offer an insight into the larger national story of which every Australian has a part. Was Breaker Morant the Gatton murderer? What happened to Sniffling Jimmy and Black Mary? We revisit some of the most colourful characters in Australia's past, and the stories that have grown around them. We go looking for the real illywhacker and find out what happened after the execution of our most famous outlaw, Ned Kelly. It takes a certain character to make a living in the Australian bush. In the most difficult situations, laughter often comes to the rescue. Here are pioneers and battlers, convicts and settler's children, and a land that tests them with fire, flood and drought, all in stories resonant with Australia's distinctive wry humour. Dip into Larrikins, Bush Tales and Other Great Australian Stories for a taste of Australia's rich history and traditions.
Download or read book The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories written by Jim Haynes and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2015-11-18 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jim Haynes, Australia's favourite tale teller, loves the sport of kings as much as he loves Aussie yarns and bush verse. From country picnic tracks to the thoroughbred racecourses of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, from Archer to Black Caviar, from the mysterious punter Louis the Possum to the great trainer Bart Cummings, he brings these two great loves together in the biggest book of Australian racing stories ever. In these stories, full of the humour and romance of the track, Jim reminds us of the great champions, the tragedies, and the unique characters (equine and human) of racing. Here are stories of famous races and jockeys, touts and urgers, nose-to-nose battles and a rort or two, as well as country race meeting where anything can happen. This rich collection captures the heart and soul of the turf and reminds us exactly why a day at the races and having a punt are such an important part of the Australian spirit. Jim Haynes lives ten minutes' walk from Randwick Racecourse and his favourite television channel is Thoroughbred Central.
Download or read book A Swag of Memories written by Brian Taylor and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quintessential Australian bushman, Brian Taylor has spent most of his life on the land. Working as a drover, a stockman, a fencer, a shearer and a saddler, he has gathered a swag of stories over the years as he travelled way out past the Barcoo, along the dusty plains and beside the dry creek beds under the endless southern sky. In A SWAG OF MEMORIES Brian Taylor shares with us these stories, of the people he has met, the places he has been and the moments, long-gone, that define the traditions of the Australian bush. Like those bush poets and storytellers of days past, Taylor brings to life the characters and the creatures of the bush: men like Dangerous Dan Smith, a hard, self-reliant man who had a gentler talent; Father Peter, a parish priest and occasional hero; Charlie Gibson, an Aboriginal stockman who knew the land better than anyone; and Banjo, the ever-alert dingo watchdog. These colourful and evocative bush tales delightfully capture a slight of Australian life that many of us will never get to see. Luckily, with this collection, you can sit back with a billy of tea and read all about it.
Download or read book Bushland Stories written by Amy Mack and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-31 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presented in its entirety for the first time in over eighty years, this edition of Amy Mack's Bushland Stories features eighteen delightful tales that are sure to thrill both adults and children alike. Without being 'preachy', each tale, whether it be about a sprig of holly learning to be humble or an owl learning to be kind at Christmas, illustrates a truth from which we can all learn. This book is probably best described as a non-religious Parables of Nature. Whether familiar with Australian flora and fauna or not, this collection will be a pleasure to read and share.
