Author: Jim Haynes
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1952535700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
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.
Author: Gosling Lucinda
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781742579177
Category : Bereavement
Languages : en
Pages : 240
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Book Description
Forensic Counsellor, John Merrick spent 20 years in what he describes as lsquo;a very unusual environmentrsquo; ndash; the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Office of the State Coroner in Glebe, Sydney ndash; more commonly known as the lsquo;city morguersquo;. Whatrsquo;s it like to work in a morgue? This book describes, first hand, coping with mutilated or decomposed bodies and the carnage of large-scale disasters like the Bali bombings. Equally as traumatic, the suicides, accidental drownings, car accidents and murders. But forensic counsellors do much more, witnessing autopsies, attending crime scenes and coronial enquiries. Itrsquo;s all in a dayrsquo;s work. Find out what itrsquo;s like behind the scenes. Those working at the morgue come face to face with death on a daily basis, and forensic counsellors like John have to find the compassion and kindness to ease the grief of those left behind.
Author: Storry Walton
Publisher: Wakefield Press
ISBN: 1743051344
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
This book draws together words and images of the people who live and work across Australia's farthest horizons, together with the staff of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) and its successor Frontier Services, who have devotedly served remote families and provided vital services which they would not otherwise have received.
Author: Anna Hille
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 1474604846
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Middle Island, Australia, is home to a unique type of bird. At only 40cm tall, the Little Penguin is the smallest of the penguin species. However locals noticed that over time, the numbers in the colony were rapidly decreasing and no one knew why. That was until the culprit was discovered - local foxes. Over the years, the area of water separating the island from the mainland had begun to silt up, leaving a clear path over to the island. A local chicken farmer, nicknamed Swampy Marsh, had an idea. He had trained his Maremma sheepdog, named Oddball, to protect his birds - what if he could do the same for the penguins? This is the true tale of how one dog managed to save the failing colony and Oddball and the penguins became a smash box-office hit film.
Author: Paul B. Kidd
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers Aus.
ISBN: 1742627986
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 474
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Book Description
Since its first publication in 2000, Australia's Serial Killers has become a true crime classic. This edition is fully updated, bringing all the cases covered up to the minute. A recognised authority on Australia's most notorious criminals, Paul B. Kidd covers in unwavering detail 33 true stories of serial murder. In this gallery of infamy are world renowned killers the likes of the Night Caller, The Granny Killer, Ivan Milat, Kathleen Folbigg and the Snowtown murderers. Sixteen years in the researching, this comprehensive and ambitious work includes psychological opinions, court-room trials, detailed confessions, and exclusive prison interviews with three of Australia's most infamous serial killers.
Author: Helen Garner
Publisher: Picador Australia
ISBN: 1742623875
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A true story of death, grief and the law from the 2019 winner of the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. In October 1997 a clever young law student at ANU made a bizarre plan to murder her devoted boyfriend after a dinner party at their house. Some of the dinner guests-most of them university students-had heard rumours of the plan. Nobody warned Joe Cinque. He died one Sunday, in his own bed, of a massive dose of rohypnol and heroin. His girlfriend and her best friend were charged with murder. Helen Garner followed the trials in the ACT Supreme Court. Compassionate but unflinching, this is a book about how and why Joe Cinque died. It probes the gap between ethics and the law; examines the helplessness of the courts in the face of what we think of as 'evil'; and explores conscience, culpability, and the battered ideal of duty of care. It is a masterwork from one of Australia's greatest writers. Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime 2005 Winner of the ABIA Book of the Year 2004 PRAISE FOR JOE CINQUE'S CONSOLATION "Garner's book is a writer's profound response to a tragedy and to questions about human responsibility over time as well as at precise moments" The Age "This is a work of great passion and of countervailing humanity - a book of witness..." Australian Book Review
Author: Jim Haynes
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 176118797X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 407
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Book Description
Australia's most amazing characters of the convict age. 'Aussies love a good story and entertainer Jim Haynes has been telling them for decades' —Courier-Mail In Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia, our master storyteller Jim Haynes has collected a fascinating cast of characters who embody the resourcefulness, bravery, defiance, successes and tragedies of the convict era, the men and women who forged the nation we would one day become. There's Joseph Banks, the true founder of the colony; Surgeon John White, the saviour of the First Fleet; Pemulwuy, the Bidjigal freedom fighter; Mary Reiby, the horse thief who made good; Sapy Lovell, the Eora gypsy convict; John Donohue, the wild colonial boy; Lady Jane Franklin, the true leader of Van Diemen's Land – and many more! Why did transportation occur, why did it end, and what was it like living in Australia from 1788 to 1870? Skilfully researched and told in Jim's warm and witty style, Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia answers these questions and brings to life well-known and unknown figures from Australia's history as a penal settlement. This is the true story of the colonisation of Australia. 'In a year when we could all use a different perspective Jim Haynes came to the rescue with his latest sojourn into history . . . a cast of colourful characters.' —Spectator
Author: Vikki Petraitis
Publisher: Lake Press
ISBN: 0655219927
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 344
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Book Description
From the bizarre to the brutal to the unbelievable, truth is often stranger than fiction, as these fascinating stories testify. Vikki Petraitis has spent hundreds of hours interviewing police - sometimes even accompanying them on active duty - to complete this collection of stories from the frontline of policing. Police officers from many fields have shared some of their best stories: the ones that were out of the ordinary, the ones they'll never forget. The result is this riveting collection of real-life Australian dramas. They include: - a 'black widow' who reported her husband missing after an argument - the perilous body retrieval of a drowned diver from a sunken submarine - the capture and conviction of a man who drugged his unsuspecting victims by spiking their drinks - the disappearance of Sarah MacDiarmid. In each case the police concerned have achieved results through dedication and teamwork, and sometimes at great personal risk. We thank them for their service and understand that sometimes, the toll was too high. Vikki Petraitis is a Melbourne author who has been writing true crime since the early 1990s. Her bestselling book about Frankston serial killer Paul Denyer, The Frankston Murders, is a classic in the true crime genre.
Author: Jim Haynes
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1761060538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
From an eccentric musical genius to an escaped convict who ended up Japan, Jim Haynes reveals some of Australia's most amazing, and sometimes unbelievable, true life stories The petty thief... who escaped Van Diemen's Land, twice, stole the government brig and set sail for Japan, where, by the Shogun's decree, all foreigners were to be executed. The world's best cricketer a champion of Aboriginal people who 'invented' Aussie Rules, survived the worst massacre of white settlers in Australia's history and killed himself with a pair of scissors. The eccentric musical genius ...who played in the greatest concert halls in the world but pushed his favourite piano stool between venues in a wheelbarrow. Over the many years Jim Haynes has spent exploring and writing about the quirkier events and people in Australia's history, he has discovered characters who have amazed, surprised and simply baffled him. This is a book about some of those men and women and their remarkable, out-of-the-ordinary and almost unbelievable lives. As he always does, Jim has discovered that there is more to the story than first meets the eye. Who knew that the first man hanged in Australia made an artefact now valued at over one million dollars? Or that an Australian swimmer was the highest-paid act on the American vaudeville circuit and the star of the first million-dollar movie ever made? And that the father of the first Australian woman to serve in parliament was hanged for murder? With a light touch, a wry eye and his gifts as a master storyteller, Jim shares the tales and adventures of a group of heroic, feisty, flawed and pioneering characters who have shaped our nation and introduced Australia to the world.
Author: Peter O’Hanlon
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1922615706
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 373
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Book Description
World War Bloody Timor gives a revealing insight into the extraordinary life of the everyday digger and service in a conflict that was far from ordinary. My name is Peter O’Hanlon, but everyone in the military, from the lowest digger to the highest officer, has always called me ‘Irish’. You won't see me, or the service men and women like me, featured in the latest blockbuster, but our service lives include drama, laughs and accounts of deep turmoil that are worth telling. I was a member of the Australian Army for 11 years and during my deployment as part of the INTERFET force, serviced three very impacting tours of East Timor. What was it like, as a 19 year to land at the Dilli Airport in Australia’s largest deployment since Vietnam? What are the little-known battles and obstacles that cause unseen scars through a deployment? What are the impacts on re-integrating into the civilian community? This is my story, an ordinary soldier; the juicy yarns, the laughs, the battles, the devastating lows, the soaring highs, the blood, sweat and tears we give in service every day. It will make you laugh and may make you cry. It's the cold hard truth about the impact of a different type of war fought by many who deployed to Timor.
