Queensland

Vintage Railways [Tasmania and Mainland Australia] – Michael Sharland

Michael Sharland the guru when it comes to vintage railways.

This is a 1983 soft cover, squarish format, printed at the Mercury. 68 pages, full of great images from early photographs. Front cover, Tasmanian R Class steaming up the bank at Brighton. Very good condition.

Not all Tassie though – about a third with locos from the mainland, and some interesting ones, taking up the rest.

Sharland has steam for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

$30.00

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Queensland – Pugh’s Almanac for the Year 1886

The essential publication of the day … Pugh’s Almanac, Law Calendar, Coast Guide and Gazetteer and “Men of the Time” for 1886

536 pages followed by 94 pages of business advertisements to the rear and more at the front and the odd one inserted.

Carries the bookplate of Alan McKiness who was perhaps the greatest ever collector of all things Queensland on paper. Also, overlapped by Alan’s bookplate that of his father D.H. McInnes – an engraving of the Endeavour. Now protected in a sturdy red cloth covered solander case with label to spine. The almanac is in very good condition with a black rebind at an early date, Brisbane bookbinders ticket partly obscured by Alan’s bookplate..

Always difficult to give justice to these incredible almanacs which contain so much information that to read from cover to cover would occupy the year. Essential information matted with trivia which we find illuminating. 8th June steamer “Victoria” chartered to take islanders home, left for Townsville with Government party under leadership of Lieut. Chester” – marks the end of blackbirding. On the 14th June Victoria sets off with 405 illegally obtained islanders for the south Sea islands etc. 11th February – English cricketers left on the steamer Wentworth for Sydney- Reported that $10,000 has been offered by the Fenians for the Prince of Wales dead or alive. 3rd March England warn Russia on Afghanistan. 11th November – Massacre of Geographical Society Expedition on the Fly River. 23rd December – the New Guinea expedition reported to be massacred arrived at Cooktown in the “Benito” all well!

Large folding graphical chart of rainfall and wet days (67cm by 40cm).

Large folding map of Queensland (66cm by 56cm) showing the rainfall in 1884

Section on Statistics; Sailing Directions, colour fold out of signals in force, comprehensive and a good chapter on “Progress in the Colony”.

As you can imagine near 100 pages of period advertisements make good reading for those that are interested in the history of business in Queensland. Tow we would like to point out – John Lennon announcing the opening of his new Hotel in Queens Street … still going today and a full page add by John Petrie, obviously going quite well .. Queensland history buffs would understand the significance.

A good Almanac with map etc., nicely cased – 1886

$180.00

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The Gladstone Colony [An Unwritten Chapter of Australian History] – J F Hogan – First Edition 1898

Published in London by T. Fisher Unwin 1898. Octavo, 279 pages. Original plum coloured with gilt lettering to front and spine and top edge gilt. A very good copy. From the library of writer historian Harold L Sheard with his distinctive bookplate at front.

Much about the goings on associated with the establishment of Gladstone.

Where we find it interesting is in July 1858 when gold is discovered on the Fitzroy River and then at Calliope. Mayhem ensues as it usually did and within a short time over 400 men were working diggings and making better than a good living – one man 100 Pounds worth in a fortnight 16,000 Pounds in today’s money. Inevitably followed soon after by a chapter titles “a host of disappointed diggers”!

The book on the establishment of Gladstone – and the gold rush.

$140.00

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Bert Hinkler [Pioneer Aviator] Centenary Medal 1892-1992

Born at Bundaberg, Queensland in 1892, Bert Hinkler would become one of the World’s greatest pioneer aviators.

He completed the first solo flight from England to Australia in February 1928. In that year, a medal was struck to recognise that feat. He went on to be the first to fly across the Southern Atlantic but sadly died in aircraft crash in Italy in 1933.

This medal is a replica of the 1928 medal, and it was produced as a souvenir of the centenary of his birth.

Still in its original velvet covered box it measures 40mm across and 33gm with high relief to both sides. Displays a head and shoulders portrait of the great man in his flying cap of the day and on the reverse a nice map representing the flight – the narrative noting it was completed in 16 days.

Hard to find, for some reason, we do not know who struck the medal.

Bert Hinkler outstanding Australian pioneer aviator

$70.00

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Narrative of the Wreck of HMS Porpoise – Robert Purdie, Surgeon’s Mate of HMS Investigator [A Matthew Flinders Item]

Octavo, xiv, 134 pages, published by Hordern House in 2014. A very good copy. The best dust jacket ever with a facsimile period map on the reverse from Flinder’s Journal Atlas.

Robert Purdie was a young surgeon who was wrecked on HMS Porpoise on a reef off the Queensland coast (to become known as “Wreck Reef’’). This was the vessel originally taking Matthew Flinders back the England having completed his coastal survey of Australia, confirming the entirety of the land mass. Purdie’s account had been published anonymously in The Naval Chronicle in 1807/07. He had been a junior officer on the Investigator and was among those that stayed on the reef whilst Flinders and others rowed back to Sydney to successfully mount a rescue.

The narrative is lively, informative and readable … here well presented with an excellent introduction and notes by Matthew Fishburn.

Matthew Flinders and Wreck Reef by Surgeon’s Mate Purdie.

$30.00

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The Wild White Man of Badu – Ion Idriess

Second printing of the first edition published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney in 1951.

Tall octavo, 232 pages, well illustrated with images from photographs, maps of the islands, end paper maps etc. A very good copy in an even better dust jacket.

The incredible true story of a convict escaping from Norfolk Island and becoming the Chief of Badu. See map on rear end papers for some clues.

Strange and exciting Farthest North.

$50.00

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Vintage Railways [Tasmania and Mainland Australia] – Michael Sharland

Queensland – Pugh’s Almanac for the Year 1886

The Gladstone Colony [An Unwritten Chapter of Australian History] – J F Hogan – First Edition 1898

Bert Hinkler [Pioneer Aviator] Centenary Medal 1892-1992

Narrative of the Wreck of HMS Porpoise – Robert Purdie, Surgeon’s Mate of HMS Investigator [A Matthew Flinders Item]

The Wild White Man of Badu – Ion Idriess

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