Having arrived with his parents from Ireland in New South Wales in 1840 as a 'bounty emigrant', the young Roderick Flanagan (1828-62) quickly developed a passionate interest in his adopted country. Following an apprenticeship with a city printer, the educated and astute Flanagan worked for a number of Australia's early newspapers, including Melbourne's Daily News and the Sydney Morning Herald, where he acquired his distinctive, journalistic approach to history. Published shortly after his early death in London in 1862, Flanagan's two-volume chronicle of New South Wales represents a lifetime of research, and demonstrates the author's balanced and unpartisan approach to politics. Picking up the narrative in 1838, Volume 2 covers the campaign for the discontinuation of criminal transportation, the origin of the Elected Council, and the political and social character of neighbouring New Zealand. This volume concludes with appendices on the economic, geographic and agricultural status of the colony.

In this 1902 work, teacher, historian and archivist James Bonwick (1817-1906) recalls a long life's contribution to the fields of education and historical writing. More than sixty publications can be attributed to Bonwick, who was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1865. He traces his life from boyhood to the many years he spent in Australia, establishing, managing and inspecting schools. Bonwick stressed the need for observation and experimentation by the pupil rather than rote learning. He was also involved in the temperance movement, and was a sympathetic champion of the near-extinct Tasmanian aborigines. Upon returning to England in the early 1880s, Bonwick immersed himself in transcribing Australian source material, archived in London, that chronicled the British settlement in Australia. Many of his transcripts were subsequently used as the basis of works on the early history of Australia both by Bonwick himself and by others.

George French Angas (1822-86) gave up a career in business to become an artist, and his interest in natural history and ethnology is apparent throughout his work. In the early 1840s he travelled to Australia and New Zealand. His paintings from this period were later exhibited and formed the basis of two important large-format books of lithographs that appeared in 1849, having been announced in this two-volume 1847 account of his travels. Volume 2 describes Angas' journey of nearly 800 miles on foot from Auckland into the volcanic interior of North Island, and the spectacular landscapes he saw there. He recounts how he 'invariably experienced hospitality and protection' among the Maori, and documents their customs, both ancient and Christianized. The book ends with Angas' impressions of New South Wales, an account of the customs of the Aboriginal tribes there, and his return to England via Cape Horn and Brazil.

Published in 1847, this is a fascinating account by the Prussian explorer Ludwig Leichhardt of his 3,000-mile expedition from north to south across Australia, from 1844 to 1846. One of the most authoritative early recorders of Australia's environment, Leichhardt was also the best trained naturalist to explore Australia during this time. The expedition departed on 1 October 1844 from Jimbour, the farthest outpost of settlement on the Queensland Darling Downs. Leichhhardt describes in detail the difficulties his party encountered from the very start, the extreme weather conditions they battled, the kindness of the people they met and his close observations of the habits of the aborigines. He also presents detailed analysis of his findings of natural phenomena. After travelling nearly 3,000 miles, Leichhardt arrived in Sydney on 25 March 1846 to a hero's welcome. Engaging and historically revealing, the volume will capture the imagination of the modern reader.

John Forrest (1847-1918), was an Australian surveyor and explorer. At twenty-two, he led an expedition to determine the fate of Ludwig Leichardt, who had earlier disappeared in the western desert. The following year he surveyed the coastal route from Perth to Adelaide, establishing the possibility of a telegraph line. In 1874, he crossed the central western desert, a two-thousand mile journey which confirmed his heroic reputation. He received the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society in London and was appointed Deputy Surveyor-General. His account of these expeditions, published in 1875, is based on his diaries, with extracts from official letters and the newspapers that covered the events. Forrest became Premier of Western Australia, held several positions under the subsequent federal government, and was the first native-born Australian to be recommended for a barony. This book thus illuminates the political history of Australia and that of its geographical exploration.

Mrs Charles (Ellen) Clacy (1830-1901) was a clergyman's daughter who, in 1852, travelled to the Australian goldfields. Published in 1853, on her return to England, this work, the first edition of which sold out almost immediately, is essentially a guide for prospective emigrants. It includes, within the lively narrative, practical advice on the cost of living, the labour market, gold-digging regulations, and marriage prospects. Mrs Clacy published several subsequent books, but her life remains obscure. Research suggests an illegitimate pregnancy or an absconding husband, unmentioned in the upbeat and respectable narrative, but possibly echoed by the highly coloured 'tale' of an anonymous emigrant woman, whose lover (twice) leaves her pregnant at the altar to go to the goldfields, with tragic consequences. However this relates to Mrs Clacy's actual circumstances, her writing vividly depicts the mixture of opportunity and hazard in nineteenth-century Australia, illuminating the country's early social history.

Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one of the first explorers of South Australia. Powell emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1850, settling in Adelaide. From 1861 he was leading small-scale expeditions along the Darling River, searching for land suitable for cultivation. Following the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin in 1872, Powell embarked on five expeditions attempting to discover an overland route between Adelaide and Perth. These volumes, first published in 1889, provide a detailed and dramatic account of his discoveries. Based on Powell's personal journals, these volumes describe in vivid detail the hardships and dangers of exploration in Australia in the nineteenth century, while providing an evocative description of the South Australian landscape before colonisation. Volume 1 contains Powell's account of his first two unsuccessful expeditions of 1872 and 1873, including his discovery of the Gibson Desert and Lake Amadeus.

John McDouall Stuart (1815-66) was a surveyor and a pioneering explorer of Australia. Born in Scotland, he emigrated in 1839 to Australia where he worked in surveying and made many expeditions into the outback. The treks he undertook from 1858 to 1862 are the focus of this account, published in 1864, and are compiled from Stuart's notes by William Hardman (1828-90). During these periods of exploration he managed - though suffering from scurvy - to cross the continent, and he also discovered various rivers and geographical features. Hardman's account uses Stuart's journals to give an account of six historic and often gruelling expeditions. The first was to the north-west; the following two were explorations around Lake Torrens; the fourth was an attempt to find the centre of the territory; a fifth involved a forced retreat after an aboriginal attack; and in the final one Stuart traversed the continent.

Van Diemen's Land was the name originally given to the island known today as Tasmania, Australia, and it was settled by the British in 1803 as a penal colony. Before writing this history of the island, the author, Henry Saxelby Melville (1799-1873), a journalist, was imprisoned in 1835 for contempt of court over an article he wrote about an ongoing trial. While experiencing the prison system at first hand, he completed this work, which examines the history of Van Diemen's Land, focusing on the period from 1824 to 1835, and offers harsh criticism of the colonial administration and penal reforms enacted by lieutenant-governor Colonel George Arthur (1784-1854). Melville also includes an essay of his views on the island's system of prison discipline. He initially had the book printed on the island, but later smuggled copies to London where it could be freely published and read.

Having arrived with his parents from Ireland in New South Wales in 1840 as a 'bounty emigrant', the young Roderick Flanagan (1828-62) quickly developed a passionate interest in his adopted country. Following an apprenticeship with a city printer, the educated and astute Flanagan worked for a number of Australia's early newspapers, including Melbourne's Daily News and the Sydney Morning Herald, where he acquired his distinctive, journalistic approach to history. Published shortly after his early death in London in 1862, Flanagan's two-volume chronicle of New South Wales represents a lifetime of research, and demonstrates the author's balanced and unpartisan approach to politics. Opening with Cook's voyage of 1770, early expeditions inland, and initial encounters with aboriginal peoples, Volume 1 covers the first sixty-eight years of European immigration, and the various political, criminal and military skirmishes that shaped the new colony.

In 1832, aged just seventeen, the future colonial governor Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) set sail from London for Australia. The farming life that awaited him laid the foundations of an enduring interest in the topography, anthropology and zoology of his adopted homeland. Following an initial expedition in 1839, in 1840 Eyre set out on his pioneering trek from Adelaide to Western Australia. The year-long adventure financially ruined the explorer, but won him the coveted gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for discovering Lake Torrens. Published in 1845, this two-volume account of the expedition made Eyre a household name in Britain and fuelled popular interest in the former penal colony. Volume 2 leads readers through various dramatic episodes including the plundering of the camp, a 'night of horrors', forced marches, and hunting kangaroos. It concludes with a fascinating account of the celebratory aborigine reception that awaited the survivors.

Port Mackay is a district of Queensland, Australia, best known for its production of cane sugar. It was first settled in the 1860s, when John Mackay (1839-1914) successfully completed a mission to claim farmland and introduce agriculture there. First published in 1908, this study by the businessman and keen amateur anthropologist Henry Ling Roth (1855-1925) explores the district's history, tracing its development from an uncharted territory barely noticed by early European explorers to a burgeoning community that profited from its ideal conditions for cultivation. Drawing on extensive notes from his visits to the region over thirty years, as well as some fascinating anecdotal accounts from settlers, Roth explores the achievements of Port Mackay's early colonists in agriculture, industry and sea trading. The book contains maps and photographs, and includes a short account of the local Aboriginal population, and substantial notes on natural history and sporting pursuits.

Ernest Powell Giles (1835-97) is best remembered as one of the first explorers of South Australia. Powell emigrated to Australia with his parents in 1850, settling in Adelaide. From 1861 he was leading small-scale expeditions along the Darling River, searching for land suitable for cultivation. Following the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin in 1872, Powell embarked on five expeditions attempting to discover an overland route between Adelaide and Perth. These volumes, first published in 1889, provide a detailed and dramatic account of his discoveries. Based on Powell's personal journals, these volumes describe in vivid detail the hardships and dangers of exploration in Australia in the nineteenth century, while providing an evocative description of the South Australian landscape before colonisation. Volume 2 deals with Powell's expeditions in 1874 and 1875, including his discovery of the Great Victoria Desert and his return journey.

Educated at Sandhurst, Sir George Grey (1812 98) became Governor of South Australia when he was not yet thirty. Later he served as Governor of New Zealand and High Commissioner for South Africa, and in the 1870s he enjoyed a period as Premier of New Zealand. Although he liked to portray himself as 'good Governor Grey' some of his contemporaries found him ruthless and manipulative. Like many other Victorian administrators, he was convinced that the 'savage' natives needed to be 'raised' properly in order to become more like Europeans. In this 1841 publication, Grey writes about two expeditions to North West Australia that took place under his leadership in 1837 9. In Volume 1, he tells of the difficulties that the expedition encountered while seeking a site for settlement, including an incident when the spear of a 'coloured man' wounded him and he shot the 'wretched savage'.

Published in 1912 as part of the Cambridge Historical Series, this is the third edition of The History of the Australasian Colonies. Created with the general reader in mind, it provides a concise, yet rigorous, analysis of historical developments in Australasia and contextualises these developments in terms of the later political situation at the beginning of the twentieth century. Whilst the narrative is undoubtedly redolent of the colonial period, it retains a high documentary value in revealing the attitudes of the time in which it was written. The text of the this edition was considerably revised from the 1895 original, and events are detailed up to the year 1911, thus encompassing the movement towards federation in Australia. This is a fascinating book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in the colonial period, Australasian history, and historiography.

Fairness and Freedom compares the history of two open societies - New Zealand and the United States - with much in common. Both have democratic polities, mixed-enterprise economies, individuated societies, pluralist cultures, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. But all of these elements take different forms, because constellations of value are far apart. The dream of living free is America's Polaris; fairness and natural justice are New Zealand's Southern Cross. Fischer asks why these similar countries went different ways. Both were founded by English-speaking colonists, but at different times and with disparate purposes. They lived in the first and second British Empires, which operated in very different ways. Indians and Maori were important agents of change, but to different ends. On the American frontier and in New Zealand's Bush, material possibilities and moral choices were not the same. Fischer takes the same comparative approach to parallel processes of nation-building and immigration, women's rights and racial wrongs, reform causes and conservative responses, war-fighting and peace-making, and global engagement in our own time-with similar results. On another level, this book expands Fischer's past work on liberty and freedom. It is the first book to be published on the history of fairness. And it also poses new questions in the old tradition of history and moral philosophy. Is it possible to be both fair and free? In a vast array of evidence, Fischer finds that the strengths of these great values are needed to correct their weaknesses. As many societies seek to become more open - never twice in the same way, an understanding of our differences is the only path to peace.

John Lort Stokes (1812-85) was a naval officer on board H.M.S. Beagle - the same ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin around the world in 1831-6. Stokes served on that expedition and on the following commission, which was a survey of Australia in which the crew was charged with discovering more about the largely unknown land mass. The expedition set off in 1837 and Stokes did not return to England until 1843 - after 18 years of service on the Beagle - when he began work on this two-volume account of the voyage, which was published in 1846. This work provides a detailed narrative of the journey, including interaction with indigenous peoples and observations about the natural world in Australia, making it an important source about the early years of the European colony. Volume 2 sees the expedition explore the Victoria River, and later venture north into the Indonesian archipelago.

John Lort Stokes (1812-85) was a naval officer on board H.M.S. Beagle - the same ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin around the world in 1831-6. Stokes served on that expedition and on the following commission, which was a survey of Australia in which the crew was charged with discovering more about the largely unknown land mass. The expedition set off in 1837 and Stokes did not return to England until 1843 - after 18 years of service on the Beagle - when he began work on this two-volume account of the voyage, which was published in 1846. This work provides a detailed narrative of the journey, including interaction with indigenous peoples and observations about the natural world in Australia, making it an important source about the early years of the European colony. Volume 1 covers Stokes' time exploring north-west Australia and includes illustrations of plants, insects, and reptiles.

"Asia, the Pacific Islands and the coasts of the Americas have long been studied separately. This essential single-volume history of the Pacific traces the global interactions and remarkable peoples that have connected these regions with each other and with Europe and the Indian Ocean, for millennia. From ancient canoe navigators, monumental civilisations, pirates and seaborne empires, to the rise of nuclear testing and global warming, Matt Matsuda ranges across the frontiers of colonial history, anthropology and Pacific Rim economics and politics, piecing together a history of the region. The book identifies and draws together the defining threads and extraordinary personal narratives which have contributed to this history, showing how localised contacts and contests have often blossomed into global struggles over colonialism, tourism and the rise of Asian economies. Drawing on Asian, Oceanian, European, American, ancient and modern narratives, the author assembles a fascinating Pacific region from a truly global perspective"--

A unique and outstanding military and industrial achievement, the Collins class submarine project was also plagued with difficulties and mired in politics. Its story is one of heroes and villains, grand passions, intrigue, lies, spies and backstabbing. It is as well a story of enormous commitment and resolve to achieve what many thought impossible. The building of these submarines was Australia's largest, most expensive and most controversial military project. From initiation in the 1981 82 budget to the delivery of the last submarine in 2003, the total cost was in excess of six billion dollars. Over 130 key players were interviewed for this book, and the Australian Defence Department allowed access to its classified archives and the Australian Navy archives. Vividly illustrated with photographs from the collections of the Royal Australian Navy and ASC Pty Ltd, The Collins Class Submarine Story: Steel, Spies and Spin, first published in 2008, is a riveting and accessibly written chronicle of a grand-scale quest for excellence.

Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) joined the Royal Navy at fifteen, later claiming to have been inspired by Robinson Crusoe. He served under William Bligh, and charted the Bass Strait in 1798. In 1801 he was commissioned to chart 'New Holland', and so became the first to circumnavigate the island he referred to as Australia. After being shipwrecked on the Barrier Reef and imprisoned for six years on Mauritius on suspicion of spying, he returned to England in 1810 and began work on A Voyage to Terra Australis. He died the day after his book and maps were published. This biography, published in 1914 to mark the centenary of his death, was the first comprehensive study of this central figure of Australian maritime exploration. The leading Australian historian Ernest Scott (1868-1939) based his account on material held in private collections in France as well as on documents deposited in Australian libraries.

The physician and ethnographer Edward Shortland (1812-93) first travelled to New Zealand in 1841, a year after the Treaty of Waitangi. He became private secretary to Governor William Hobson, and quickly learned the Maori language. First published in 1851, this book describes Shortland's experiences on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island while conducting a census of the local Maori settlements in 1843. It documents South Island Maori myths, traditions and everyday life, and includes genealogical tables and a short word-list of the local dialect. It also describes a French Company agent at Akaroa reporting the successful introduction of French vines, the Scottish settlement at Dunedin, and the productivity of several whaling stations. Shortland reminds prospective settlers of the importance of understanding the 'ideas and prejudices' of the Maori, whose many qualities including 'natural bravery and love of freedom' guarantee them continuing 'political weight in their own country'.

In May 1787 a fleet of ships carrying convicts left England bound for Botany Bay, New South Wales, where they were to establish a settlement. One of the crew on board the Charlotte was Watkin Tench (c.1758-1833), who wrote about the voyage of what was later known as the First Fleet. He remained in New South Wales, living in Port Jackson (part of present-day Sydney) from 1788 to 1791, and in this work, published in 1793, he gives a vivid, first-hand account of the early years of British settlement. The chapters are chronologically organised and discuss the many challenges settlers in the fledgling colony faced in staying alive, such as illness and lack of food and other provisions. He also recounts the often violent encounters and 'unabated animosity' between the settlers and the aboriginal people, making this work an important source on the colonisation of Australia.

Michael Davitt (1846-1906) was a prominent and influential figure in Irish politics in the nineteenth century. A fervent supporter of Irish independence, he was imprisoned more than once in England, but later became a Member of Parliament for Irish constituencies. In this book, first published in 1898, Davitt records a journey of seven months through the Australasian colonies, noting his impressions of the areas he passed through and discussing the political and social norms across the different regions. He examines land laws in many of the areas and describes the different industries then emerging. He also reports on the treatment of aborigines, ranging from 'exterminating the aborigines' in Tasmania to the 'efforts to protect them' in Western Australia, and finally focuses on prisons and prisoner welfare across the colonies he visited. This book offers a wealth of information on many aspects of nineteenth-century Australasia.

First published anonymously in 1863, this classic book recounts the experiences of Frederick Edward Maning (c.1811-83), an Anglo-Irish trader who emigrated to Tasmania with his family as a boy and later relocated to New Zealand. A self-styled 'Pakeha-Maori' ('Pakeha' is the Maori word for a white New Zealander), Maning acquired land and settled down with a Maori woman, occupying a tenuous position between the two cultures. Observing that the old Maori way of life was rapidly disappearing due to the increased European presence in New Zealand, Maning endeavoured to record Maori customs and material culture before all knowledge of them disappeared. Old New Zealand is a mixture of history, autobiography and anecdote, and the author insists all the incidents and people described are real. The language is informal, and the narrative vigorous and rapid, with lively dialogues and occasional Maori phrases. A glossary explains Maori words and concepts.