Australiana

Lure of the Southern Seas – The Voyages of Dumont D’Urville 1826-1840

Large perfect bound soft cover (30cm x 24cm) a good size for showing off the many illustrations from artwork created at the time and photographs of displays from the voyage collection held in France.

Published by the Historic Housed Trust of NSW in association of a exhibition held at the Sydney Museum in 2003.

Well researched and produced making an important contribution to works on the two voyages undertaken by Dumont D’Urvillle in the first half of the 19th Century.

Following and introductory chapter “Southern Discomfort” and excellent map, we gain an understanding of the man and what drove him. His voyage towards the Polar Ice; the Anthropology and “Harvest of Curiosities” and the more defined Natural History Catalogue. Some notes on the artists without whom the wonder could not have been so well revealed. Data back up in the form of routes and statistics of the Voyage are followed by the great man’s correspondence and of all things “his will” … references, bibliography.

Dumont D’Urville well presented historical account, some new information and special images.

$35.00

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A Convict Story – The Lost Lives of Lyra and William Sykes – “These few lines” – Graham Seal

Published by ABC Books, Sydney in 2006. This book took twenty year of research in England and Australia a narrative based around fragments of the separated lives of Lyra and William Sykes.

Living in northern England, William Sykes was a poacher and during such an escapade he got into an altercation and killed the gamekeeper. His penalty was transportation to the Swan River in Western Australia.

Octavo, 234 pages, nicely illustrated with images of letters exchanges, journals and places relevant to both Myra and William. Fine condition.

Interesting convict story well researched, written and presented.

$20.00

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D.H. Lawrence in Australia – Robert Darroch – First Edition 1981

A very good copy of the first edition of Darroch’s most interesting account of D.H.Lawrence Down Under.

Published by Macmillan, Melbourne in 1981. Octavo, 130 pages, nicely illustrated.

Lawrence was in Australian in 1922 during which time when in New South Wales he penned the worthy novel “Kangaroo”. A work that was once dismissed as imaginary but in fact based on a half-forgotten period of violence and hatred in Australia. As in Europe fascism was building. His protagonist Richard Lavat Somers was a writer and maybe from that fact some believed the work partly autobiographical … we doubt it.

D.H.Lawrence out and about in Australia and the making of “Kangaroo”.

$40.00

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Womba – and Aboriginal Stockboy (in the Cattle Country in the Heart of Australia) – F.J. McLeod – First edition 1952.

Published by Georgian House, Melbourne, a first edition generally in very good clean condition with the super period wrap around dust jacket art.

The writer of the story of Womba had been a mounted policeman. The story centres on Dericka Station which is in the MacDonnell Ranges.

Super depiction of station life where Womba learns to break in wild colts and the mustering of cattle over the vast expanses of the station. Interactions with the local Myall tribesmen are a little mysterious.

An acceptable treatment of the subject matter especially for the period.

Womba in the MacDonnell Ranges.

$25.00

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The Convict Settlers of Australia – Robson

A first edition of this respected book on the subject. Published by the Melbourne University Press in 1965. Octavo, 257 pages, numerous tables of data included as appendices.

We are encouraged by the author to go through the tables in the appendices first before reading the book which is based up a statistical sample derived by way of the informative tables.

The body of the book seeks to define what sort of people made up the mass of the convicts transported and what sort of life they led in Australia. Conclusions that cannot be drawn from google search.

The Australian Convict population analysed and defined.

$30.00

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The Whitehead Letters – Tasmanian Society and Politics 1871-1882

A nice production by the Tasmanian Historical Research Association published under their banner in 1991. Limited to 1,000 copies.

Compiled by Launceston historian Francisca Vernon and edited by Michael Sprod of Blubber Press.

Octavo, 270 pages, illustrated with map, facsimile letter, portraits including from an early photograph of Whitehead. A fine copy.

John Whitehead operated out of a fine country property “Winburn” on the South Esk River near Lymington south-east of Launceston. He was a touch and involved with all the goings on of the period. And, an avid letter writer, many to his English friend Edwin Bowring who had worked on properties in Tasmania and therefore “’knew the ropes”. As was practice with gentry of the period Whitehead kept a copy letter book which made the whole exercise of compilation less tiresome.

One for those with an interest in the history of Tasmania filling in an important and turbulent period in its development.

The Whitehead Letters and important brick in the wall that is the history of Tasmania

$30.00

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Lure of the Southern Seas – The Voyages of Dumont D’Urville 1826-1840

A Convict Story – The Lost Lives of Lyra and William Sykes – “These few lines” – Graham Seal

D.H. Lawrence in Australia – Robert Darroch – First Edition 1981

Womba – and Aboriginal Stockboy (in the Cattle Country in the Heart of Australia) – F.J. McLeod – First edition 1952.

The Convict Settlers of Australia – Robson

The Whitehead Letters – Tasmanian Society and Politics 1871-1882

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