Queensland

Triumph in the Tropics (Queensland) – Cilento and Lack – 1959

This substantial book was produced for the Centenary Celebrations of Queensland published 1959 effectively by the Historical Committee of the State Government. It is free from government style and influence and jam packed with facts in a naturally chronological order.

Thick octavo, 446 pages plus index. Illustrated throughout, including charts, coloured frontispiece of the Cooktown Orchid (quite beautiful but we find a slightly strange choice). Facsimile signatures on endpapers and a pretty good example of the decorative period dust jacket. Very clean.

Starts with very early explorers (the reference to first nation people comes later) .. Cook, Flinders, Oxley, Convict establishments, foray into the interior, self Government. Then the development of the “Modern Queensland” … pastoral, maritime and mining (more about Mount Morgan).

It is the depth of information that impresses us most about this book, whilst the content concerning aboriginal people would not meet today’s standards, it is hard to find a book anywhere that addresses progress in Queensland better than this account. Not surprising given the authors [note their humble reference to mere editors] Cilento and Lack.

A Triumph it is … Queensland!

$50.00

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The Opium Smugglers – Ion Idriess – First edition 1948

Idriess back in Cook’s Passage and the Lizard Island. A tale written for boys and now grown up boys. Somewhat of a rarity.

A first edition published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney in 1948. Without the jacket, octavo, 273 pages, original tanned cloth covered boards with shell design to front. End paper maps, ownership signature on front ends. A pretty good copy.

The Lizard and opium

$35.00

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Cruising the Coral Sea – Alan Lucas

This is the third edition nicely updated with aerial images and some extra anchorages. A really super book about the tropical coast of Queensland and the Ocean and Islands. The kind of book that is probably difficult to continue to produce spoilt by the accessibility of the internet. But nowhere is so much useful and interesting information presented in an orderly and balanced fashion.

Published by Horwitz in 1976, large octavo, 336 pages with a multitude of maps, sketches, the aforesaid photographic images etc.

After a useful introduction we have a description of the reefs , the islands past present and notes on conservation. Then a handy chapter on catching and cooking your own food .. and the number of poisonous creatures encountered. Safety in the waster … not just sharks but the stingers even the small ones that can kill. Then into the detail of the approaches and anchorages and what a good anchorage looks like …

A special book on Queensland and only dated where it is interesting …

$30.00

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“Battler’s” Tales of Early Rockhampton – Grant Pattison

A very scarce first edition of this book about goings on in and around Rockhampton, Queensland.

Self published by the author printed by Fraser & Jenkinson, Melbourne in 1939. Octavo, 152 pages, illustrated, bound in original cloth covered boards. This book appears prone to spine fading and deterioration and this one is no exception, the spine has been re-enforced with bindings tape and the board edges are rubbed heavily … maybe insect nibble. Having said that a pretty clean and bright copy internally so still a good copy.

The author was a well known local identity and journalist in Queensland. The book is et out in 39 chapters dealing with a particular story that no doubt Pattison had covered in the press before.

Starts with the “Birth of Rockhampton” … Gracemere Pioneers .. Canoona Rush … Rockhampton in the Sixties [1860’s] .. Pioneers of Fitzroy … Mr Booze .. Horse Dealers … Scrub Riders … Crimes Committed … The First Steeplechase … Murder of Fanny Briggs … Murder of Halligan … Horse thieves and Cattle Rustlers .. Mount Morgan [Gold] … etc etc.

The author notes “ I regret I have to delete a good deal of the history of Mount Morgan and the Rape of William Pattison’s Estate. This has been done on legal advice to save the printer anxiety, and I regret I am not strong enough financially to contest any action the descendants of the wolves who did not bother to wear sheep’s clothing may be inclined to take.”

Historical Curiosities – Early Rockhampton.

$90.00

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The Cattle King [The Story of Sir Sydney Kidman] – Ion Idriess

Published in Sydney by Angus and Robertson in 1951.

Octavo, 277 pages, a very good copy in a very good dust jacket, small chip top edge, super clean inside.

The Biography of Sir Sidney Kidman who started with five shillings and eventually controlled over 100 cattle stations an area half the size of Queensland.

Well illustrated from period photographs and end paper maps showing the extent of the Kidman interests at the front and stations, stock routes, coach routes and railways referred to in the text … at the rear.

Good reading & photographs … a cattle empire much in the financial news of late.

$60.00

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Isles of Despair – Ion Idriess – 1949

A very good copy just a little chipped to the dust jacket.

Octavo, 290 pages, end paper maps, illustrated with good line drawings befitting the historical nature of the account. Published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney a second printing 1949.

A fictionalised account of the the true story of Barbara Thompson [Idriess Thomson] shipwrecked on the cutter “America” on the reef at Horn island and only survivor. She swam to Prince of Wales Island and lived with the Kaurareg people for five years before being found by Captain Owen Stanley and a young Thomas Huxley who as a junior officer on board the exploring vessel Rattlesnake.

Barbara saved at last

$70.00

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Triumph in the Tropics (Queensland) – Cilento and Lack – 1959

The Opium Smugglers – Ion Idriess – First edition 1948

Cruising the Coral Sea – Alan Lucas

“Battler’s” Tales of Early Rockhampton – Grant Pattison

The Cattle King [The Story of Sir Sydney Kidman] – Ion Idriess

Isles of Despair – Ion Idriess – 1949

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