Australia Books

Since the first edition of this work came out in 1975, this work has been a must-have for anyone, layman or professional, who is interested in Australia's unique and very speciose collection of reptiles and amphibians. Successive upgrades through the years have kept this book up to date (but at the same time considerably larger and more expensive than the original).

Quite simply, this book is a guide to ALL of Australia's (including it's island territories) frogs and reptiles. Each taxa has a full description of it's appearance, distribution (by way of both text and an accompanying shaded map), habits and, in the majority of species, a corresponding colour photograph of the living animal. The book has very thorough and simple to use dichotomous keys that should allow any specimen in hand to be quickly identified. A comprehensive list of scientific references is also given for those wishing to conduct more in-depth research. Also included are basic guides to the collection, preservation and captive care of specimens.

I have only one gripe with the current (Sixth - year 2000) edition. Since (I think) 1992 there has been no major rewrite of the main text - instead an increasingly large Appendix of has been slapped on the end. The current Appendix is now over 40 pages long with numerous subsequently described species and nomeclatural rearrangements. It can be very annoying having to flick from the main text to the Appendix in such a large volume to see what the current information is.

Still, this is a bearable hardship to pay for such a treasuretrove of information and illustrations.

Very good book, lots of pictures and maps.

I work at David Fleay Wildlife Park on the Gold Coast and this is the reference book I recommend to those wanting to identify either reptiles or amphibians that they have in their backyard, come across while travelling or from photographs. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia is a very large, thick and heavy doorstopper of a book so not really ideal for the backpacker who wants something to carry in their backpack. If you have a car, or want it for the home though it is ideal.

As well as great photographs to compare what you are wondering about there is also a substantial amount of information on each reptile and amphibian. There are also shaded maps to indicate where you are most likely to come across each animal that you seek.

If you are after a book that covers the whole range of animals in Australia and not just reptiles and amphibians I would recommend Encyclopaedia of Australian Wildlife by Janet Healey. If you live in South East QLD then Wildlife of Greater Brisbane by the Queensland Museum is also a great reference book. For those interested only in birds I would recommend Michael Marcombe's A Field Guide to Australian Birds.

Boldrewood was actually Thomas Browne. He took Boldrewood as his pen name. He was a very prolific writer from the late 1800's and early 1900's and he lived in New South Wales, Australia. Browne was a squatter, a stock-farmer, a police magistrate, a goldfields commissioner and a writer during his long and colourful life. This book is a good rousing yarn about life in early Australia, but it's more than that. The story is about an English aristocrat turned bushranger who partook in cattle-stealing and highway robbery. His brushes with the law, and the stories of death and murder is a classic of literature. Boldrewood's character of Captain Starlight was probably based on a real character that lived and committed crimes in Australia. His name was Captain Moonlight. Even Captain Starlight's two desperate accomplices were probably based on Moonlight's real accomplices. The book is a real page-turner and I recommend it highly. Boldrewood could tell a story!

Rolf Bolderwood gives a fantastic insight into the mindset of early Australia. Robbery under arms deals with the classic idea of an honest man driven to crime and the suffering it brings him. It is also full of the adventure and excitement that comes along with the criminal life. The book is deep, moody and allows you to be drawn into both the Australian bush and the character's thoughts.

Like an untrained person in the outback this book is easy to get lost in. It explains in detail how the people involved got into the situation they were in.
I used to enjoy westerns but now all I want is the outback.
The book concurs with other works of the time I have read. It is one of the few books I can say I found hard to put down.
If I forget what visiting the Jungle in FNQ (Far North Queensland) was like or some trails in NSW were like or the lands at Gosford Sydney I only have to see the book cover out fo the corner of my eye and it all comes rushing back. Forget about painting a thousand words with a picture somehow this evokes sentiments that I doubt canvas would be strong enough to capture. In my opinion it is as powerful as 'Born under paperbark tree' is and 'For the term of his natural life' also is.

I dont usually read this style of book but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Initially I didnt feel any real connection with the author, and yet the book was engrossing. As the book progressed my feelings towards her changed. The author manages to absorb you into her day to day life, and writes so well I can clearly envision Pittwater and the characters (and dogs) of whom she writes. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for a fun read with a message which creeps up on the reader, doesnt hit you between the eyes.

Story: The Way of Water

As a fellow author in the biography genre, I was hugely impressed by the passion, honesty and sheer beauty of Susan Duncan's writing. As a fellow Australian, Dorothea Mackellar fan and Sydney bush dweller, I found lots to entice in this story of life, of death and of living in the moment. It was sheer joy to share the author's experiences of life among the small bayside communities of Pittwater, with their idiosyncrasies, their down to earth attitude to living and their enormous generosity. The author also shares with us both her experiences of living with cancer and watching those she loves most die from cancer. Yet this is one of the most positive and romantic tales of recent times. Salvation Creek is a wonderful title and wonderfully evocative of the essence of the book. Can't recommend this highly enough.

Anne E. Lenehan
Author "Story: The Way of Water"
The biography of astronaut and philosopher Story Musgrave

This was the best read I have had in many years. Anyone who is a cancer survivor, or going through chemotherapy and loss, will gain such strength from this story.
Susan is able to put words to the feelings you have when you have been hit with the news. All throughout the book I kept saying "yes, that's exactly how I felt" and in many ways it was like listening to that song "Killing me softly" where the boy is singing her thoughts.
Never does the author get maudlin or depressing ... quite the contrary. She is so positive and practical and just a complete joy. I love her to bits!

"The unconditional surrender of Germany," he said, has just been announced. After six years of the cruel murder of human beings, victims are being mourned, and Europe is now trying to return to peace and order".

Schindler's Ark tells a true story about a German gentleman, drinker and a womanizer who saved many Jewish lives during World War II. This powerful novel gives off a realistic sense of terror, describes the many horrific events and lots of romances being painfully torn apart. This is about a man who wrote a list, a list that made a great impact on many people's lives until one day when it all goes wrong.

Thomas Keneally has told the story in a way which will grip the reader. The reader will go through a whole array of emotions. This book invites us all to remember those lives, some of whom were taken and some of whom have changed forever! After all, this is a true story!

"The dust of the dead fell in hair and on the clothing hung in the back gardens of junior officers' villas".

This book is best suited for ages 13 and up.

Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize-winning, fictionalized biography of Oskar Schindler memorializes a member of the Nazi party who endangered his own life for four years, working privately to save Jews from the death camps. A playboy who loved fine wines and foods, he was also a smooth-talking manipulator (and briber) of Nazi officials, as well as a clever entrepreneur, already on his way to stunning financial success by the early days of World War II. Nowhere in Schindler's background are there any hints that he would one day become the savior of eleven hundred Jewish men and women.

While the excellent film of this novel concentrates on the dangers Schindler and "his Jews" faced daily throughout the war, Keneally, well known for his depictions of characters acting under stress, concentrates on the character of Oskar Schindler himself, beginning with his childhood and teen years. As he explores Schindler's transformation from war profiteer and "passive" Nazi to a man willing to use his fortune to ensure the salvation of his factory workers, Keneally reveals a man of enormous courage and derring-do, a man who thrives by living on the edge.

Presenting episodes from the lives of some of the "Schindlerjuden," Keneally highlights their humanity, creating moments of high drama. Characters such as Leopold Pfefferberg and factory manager Itzhak Stern move in and out of the narrative, illustrating graphically the extent to which their lives depend upon Oskar Schindler, while the constant intrusion of sadistic SS commandant Amon Goeth in Schindler's life shows the fragility of their security. Other stories, of people who just missed being saved by Schindler, highlight the arbitrariness of fate--chance--in their (and our) lives.

Throughout the novel, Keneally stresses the importance of bearing witness and testifying to the atrocities. In one of the novel's most moving passages, Schindler and his lover ride horses to a ridge where they can view the expulsion of the Jews from the Krakow ghetto, watching, horrified, as old or crippled laggards are murdered in front of Jewish children. "They permitted witnesses because they believed the witnesses, all, would perish, too." Later, Schindler works with a Zionist rescue organization, secretly going to Budapest to testify about the hidden death camps.

Schindler's heroism, his goodness within a country committed to the extermination of other humans, his recognition that witnesses are essential, and his ability to use the system in order to hasten its end bring this story of one man's fight against the Holocaust to life. But it is Keneally's incorporation of Schindler's faults and excesses which gives texture and depth to this portrait and make Schindler a character with whom the reader can identify. Keneally's meticulous research and his portrait of Schindler after the war, beloved by Jews but at loose ends personally and professionally, make this novel an unforgettable study of character and time. Mary Whipple

This review is dedicated by a Jew and Zionist Until Death, myself! , To the Righteous among the Nations, those Gentiles who have stood by the Jewish Nation in times of travail and murder, and those who continue to stand by Jews and Israel, in these frightening and sombre times of today.

Many people have wondered how the nation that gave us such great contributors to humanity, such as the Statesman Frederick the Great, the poet and writer Johan Goethe, and musicians such as Bach and Beethoven, could have allowed themselves to be led by the Satanic Adolph Hitler (may his evil name be erased from history) produced the SS and Gestapo, and allowed those evil forces to carry out the Holocaust against 6 million Jewish men, women and children, as well as millions of Roma, disabled people , Slavs and Armenians.

An yet we must not forget the righteous among the nations, which included Germans like Pastor Niemoller and Konrad Adenauer, who opposed the monstrous Nazi tyranny, and Oskar Schindler (and Emily Schindler) among others, who put their own lives on the line to save Jewish lives.

Oskar Schindler was a maverick Sudeten German industrialist, who put his life and livelihood on the line to save 6 000 Jews from the Nazi death machine.

Unlike the move "Schindler's List", in this book we read something of the world before and after World War II and the Holocaust (Shoah).

Hence we see something of the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church, and how the centuries of Catholic poison against the Jewish people, in some ways paved the way for the horrors of the Shoah (as well as having caused untold suffering and death to Jews through the centuries - since Roman times! -and it continues to cause suffering and death today to Jews when the Catholic Church sides with Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israeli Jewish women and children!

In 1929 Oskar Schindler married Emilie, a German speaking Catholic girl (who would prove to have a heart of gold, but would be treated shabbily by Oskar). From her girlhood Emilie would have a close friendship with the daughter of the local Jewish storekeeper in her village, Rita Reiff.

On a visit to Emile's father, the parish priest told him that it was not good , in principle , for a Catholic girl to have a friendship with a Jew. It is a testament to Emilie's character that she resisted the edict of the bigoted priest, and remained a close friend Rita's, until Rita was executed by Nazi officials, in front of the store, in 1942.

It is a testament to the love and honour that Schindler would be held in by the Jews he saved and their descendents, that when this book was written by Thomas Keneally in 1982 (37 years after the war and 8 years after Oskar Schindler passed away) that a family called the C's who spread malicious rumours about Schindlers, still had to be protected by being granted anonymity by the author! Clearly the Schindlerjuden or their children or grandchildren could take revenge against the C's if the author had revealed their identity!

He was not held by all Germans with such esteem after the war, and as late as the 1960's were spat out and verbally attacked on the streets of Frankfurt (but more of that later).

Just as there have always been a handful of righteous Gentiles, so too there have always been Jews who have acted in ways that have brought destruction on their own people.
The Judenrat (The Nazi puppet councils of Jews) that helped the Nazis oppress their own people, where mainly made up of secular intellectuals, as are the leftist Jewish traitors today, like the loathsome Noam Chomsky, who back the `Palestinian' efforts to destroy the tiny Jewish State of Israel, and thereby subject the Jewish people to a second holocaust.

Over half of all holocaust survivors today live in Israel (as do many descendants of holocaust survivors), and it would be a hideous twist of history for these too to perish in the flames of anti-Jew hatred, as they would do if Israel was destroyed by forces of evil (G-D forbid that this should ever be allowed to happen!)

Towards his later life in the 1960's and early 70's Schindler would be well looked after by the Schindlerjuden in Israel (where he spent half of every year, spending the other half in Germany in poverty and loneliness), and he would choose to be buried in Jerusalem.

Many Schindler Jews mourned him at his funeral in Jerusalem in 1974.

While we will always remember evil enemies of our people those like Pharaoh Amalek, Haman, Torquemada, Chmielnicki, Hitler, Stalin, Gaddafi Arafat, Edward Said and Chomsky (may their souls be eternally erased), we too must remember the Righteous Among the Nations such as Rahab, Emperor Darius, Pastor Niemoller, Oskar and Emilie Schindler , Reverend Pat Robertson , David Dolan and Mike Evans (may they be eternally blessed).

Great story of what it is really like to be a harrier pilot in a war. The book goes into detail about the problems with equipment and bureacracy, the manoeuvres and strategies used to gain an advantage. This complements the descriptions of the actual air battles against the Argentinians.

Wonderfully blunt first person account of the Falkland's air campaign, the Harrier jet, and air combat in general. Read along side of Admiral Sandy Woodward's "100 days" on the naval campaign, one gets contrasting views of the same events. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Falkland's war in general or in air combat in particular.

History of training and tactical development of Sea Harrier aircraft. Description of preparations and training as task force sails to Falkland Islands. Graphically exposes ship-to-ship and inter-service rivalries that compromise the mission. Describes command and staff failures to understand abilities of weapons systems causing unnecessary deaths and ship losses. Makes one wonder if wars are won because losers bureaucracy was more incompetent than winners.

although I was a little too young to remember 1964, (I was born in 1959) this book is an absolute must for anyone interested in discovering or just revisiting the vibes from 1964 Australia particularly Sydney. A beaut read!!!

...but it's still available from Pan MacMillan in Australia for less than AU$20

This is the most accurate view of life in sydney during the sixtys. Forget all the others , this one has sex, violence, and stacks of ROCK AND ROLL! I was at the aztecs shows, I saw the fights and had the women. Don't bother with anything else. P.S. there is a HUGH surprise on the last page!

A superb book, lavishly illustrated in full color, beautifully demonstrating the power and magic of the shields of New Guinea and the surrounding islands.

It is a bit sad that the people living in such an idyllic location as the islands of the South Pacific. But of course there were people there and that means that there was conflict.

Among the many differences in these shields from those commonly seen in European collections is that the South Pacific islands had no iron, no metals of any type. While the Europeans were constantly innovating and improving their weapons, the islanders were still making fighting equipment from organic materials such as animal hide, bark, wood, rattan. That means, among other things that these shelds were made relatively recently when compared with European exhibits.

Surprisingly, although this book is titled Shields of Melanesia, many of the areas of what is now called Melanesia such as Vanuatu and New Caladonia never developed shields at all. This book will represent the definitive work on this class of shields, it is beautifully printed and illustrated.

A great work about the various shield types of Melanesia. The book deals mostly with mainland New Guinea, but also with surrounding Islands and the Solomons. There are beautiful pictures in color of the shields and old b/w field photographs. It includes also many distribution maps of the different shield types. Until now, this is the first reference book about Melanesian shields, and a must for anybody who is interested in that field. Not only the allready well known regions like Sepik-, Asmat and Highlands of P.N.G. are described, it deals also with lesser known areas like Digul or Waropen.
Barry Craig had long-time field expirience at the Min region (see his other book about that region „Art and Decoration of Central New Guinea". The austrian Harry Beran, is an expert about the Massim Art.
It's a pitty, that the book is not available from the original publisher in australia. He is a specialist for books about Melanesia-New Guinea. Without his enthusiasm, many books about that field, would not have been published.

Pinney's account of jungle warfare in New Guinea and Borneo ranks among the finest war novels ever written. It's one minor drawback is that is is written in Australian English, and while the author does provide a glossary of slang terms, he omits common Aussie slang such as "whiteant". Any who have ever had the privilege of serving with Australians will immediately feel at home with the characters. These were a tougher bunch, having grown up in depression era Australia, but that old Digger self-sufficiency, distrust of authority, and biting humor shines through. Their speech will send hackles down the spines of the politically correct, but beneath the multi-hued skins of "boongs, murries, and burries" they see men much like themselves, locked in a struggle for survival, as much against nature as against the strange white and yellow armies fighting on their soil. Pinney's keen eye provides a myriad of details that move the reader from the blinding greens of the jungle, back to the routine of base camp, to a jungle pool covered with phosphorescent butterflies. He catches the wonder, the boredom, the fear, and the fatigue. Probably the best fictional account of war in the Pacific. If Mel Gibson ever wants to make an Australian World War II movie, this is it.

Peter Pinney kept a diary while fighting in New Guinea and Bouganville that would have got him court-martialed if it had been found. Fortunately for all of us, it wasn't, he wasn't, and we have been given an unbelievably realistic view of what it was really like as a private soldier in a commando unit fighting in the jungles of the Pacific.

The is "Survivor" without a TV crew and with very real risks to life and health. Like being in an ambush with enemy soldiers just feet away. If they happened to see you, you are dead. Yet he does this repeatedly and survives.

How does it feel to kill someone? Find out. How does it feel to lose a close friend? Find out. How do you fill the long periods of boredom between action? Find out. This is a truly amazing book.

One of the best books written on the subject, Peter Pinney writes easily and candidly about his experiences as a Signaller with the Australian Imperial Forces in PNG and The Solomons. Creeping through jungles, seeking the feared Japanese 'warrior', Pinney relates the thoughts and fears of his companions, from the pompous officers to the blood thirsty soldier and coward alike, he draws the characters with a simple, life giving ink and paints the steaming jungle backdrop with a magical brush.

Fact and fiction interweave, I suspect, but the resulting story is of high class.

Even if you are not interested in the subject, this is still a fantastic trilogy and one that at least every Australian should read!

When Dane Waites was born in 1974, tolerance towards autism was just starting to move out of the shadows and into the light. His behavior was autistic from infancy; he smiled at trees and at the shadows they made on his walls. Largely nonverbal, he reached some milestones at a later rate, e.g. mastering toileting at age 7.

The boy also celebrated his first Christmas at age 7. The Waites, wanting him to enjoy Christmas as his peers did, taught him about Santa. Junee Waites even said that once introduced, she feared Santa would be with them forever. By the time Dane reached his teens, he accepted the explanation that Santa only comes to younger children. Dane's poignant comment, "I'm too old for Santa, right" makes one feel a tad sad for him. One cannot help but wonder if Dane still believed. I think another approach would be to tell him, "Dane, Santa is fun pretend and a game many people play with their children as a Christmas tradition" or whatever verbiage got through to him. The remote possibility that Santa might remain an enduring belief far past that of his peers was unfortunate and in which case, it seems the honest approach would be better. Fortunately for all, Dane learned to open gifts without fear of the unknown and participate in holiday activities.

Dane was enrolled in a mainstream kindergarten and it was there he met his lifetime friend, Jenny. She accepted Dane unconditionally; she said that she knew he could talk and when she asked him her name, he said, "Jenny." She was his defender and protector; a photograph of the pair at Dane's 5th birthday party shows Jenny at his side, ready to go to bat for him at any time. I just loved that part.

Jaeger, the German short-haired pointer was another faithful protector Dane enjoyed. The beautiful dog (1983-1992) was an important part of Dane's life and rarely left his side. Her untimely death might make you cry, but you will certainly be cheered by the strides Dane made.

Dane's immediate community accepted him as well. There was a large Italian community in his town and he learned to make many Italian dishes; Junee took conversational Italian and out of this, many friendships were made. Dane was quickly and readily absorbed and accepted by his friendly neighbors; from these friendships came lasting bonds and an abiding respect for Italian food, language and culture.

Dane's world expanded tremendously; the Waites took Dane on trips and moved twice during their son's boyhood. Dane was happiest when outside and enjoying nature. Luckily a farm family with 3 children had him work with them on their farm and Dane thrived in that environment. He also got to travel to the Fiji Islands and appreciated Fijian culture. I like the way he took an open interest in other people.

Junee Waites is wonderfully candid about life with Dane and working within his challenges. She is a person I truly admire and her unflagging faith in her son along with the kind nuns and priest who also taught him and helped him understand and appreciate his faith truly warms the heart. I loved the part when Dane received his First Communion at age 10 and the priest who wrote a lovely account of this in a book. Dane's spiritual development is nicely chronicled as well; an especially moving account of this was when Dane told a man in a wheelchair he would pray for him. Dane also insisted on bringing apples to feed homeless people in a neighborhood park.

The Waites' odessy with autism came full circle when they encountered Jenny, Dane's boyhood friend in a restuarant. By then the manager of the place, Jenny told them how she understood about Dane and knew how to reach him as only a compassionate peer could. That was my favorite part along with Dane's First Communion.

Dane's travel and spiritual development no doubt helped him become a rather well rounded young man. He also demonstrated physical prowess in early adulthood when he took up running; marathon biking and weight lifting. Although still autistic, Dane continues to remain an active, thriving member of his society and has held down jobs since the age of 14.

Junee Waites provides readers with rich descriptions of the parts of Australia where she and her family lived; readers are treated to the places that they visited as travelers. To make a good thing even better, a list of resources as well as descriptions of resources available in Australia are provided. This is truly an outstanding book. It makes me think of the hymn, "On Eagle's Wings" and the song "You Are the Light of the World," as Dane emerged from shadows into the light of conversing and providing explanations of his experience with autism.

I read this book from cover to cover and then I read it all over again. I am a mother of a child with special needs (including autistic traits)and know of many others with young ASD children. This is a book I could recommend to them, for the insight it offers into both autism and a parent's journey. I learned so much, began to see life through the eyes of the ASD child and to understand why he acted as he did, and related it to much of what my friends' children did, or my own. The mother's love shone throughout the book yet she was very honest about how she felt and how hard that journey was at times. Always though, it was a book of hope and of love and remained positive throughout.

Like the previous reviewer, I too would like to write to the author to say how enormously helpful this book is. It should become an ASD classic, to inform and inspire parents, professionals, the general public - and those with ASD themselves.

Thank you so much for this book. Junee is inspiring and warm, her love for her son and respect for his rights is uplifting for any parents dealing with the ups and downs of raising a child with autism. I am a single mother of two autistic children and while reading this book I was touched beyond words, I hope one day to inspire other parents as Junee has for me and many more parents around the world. Is there any way of emailing her or atleast a way for me to say thank you to her and let her know how much she has touched my family?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was packed full of very precise, useful information and the included CD-ROM was a terrific bonus! I especially enjoyed the straight forward approach that the book presents. Sponsorship has evolved and our company's views about sponsorship need to as well. This book provided us with the information and tools that we need to move our corporate sponsorship program into the twenty first century.

This book was indispensable! It helped me understand how wise corporate sponsors determine who gets accepted for a sponsorship! If you are having difficulty obtaining a corporate sponsor, I would highly recommend reading this book. Understanding how businesses make their sponsorship decisions gives you an edge over your competition. I am now better prepared to pitch my presentation and have high hopes of landing a great sponsor! The cards are now stacked in my favor.

This book is outstanding. It has totally revolutionised the way we approach our investment in sponsorship. I had never realised we were so backward until I read this book and it made so much sense. We are now in the process of renegotiating many of our sponsorships to get better results for the brand, not just put our logo in front of people.

The tools and checklists that are included in the book and on the CD-ROM have made changing our approach much easier. They work on all sizes and types of sponsorship. We have even customised some of them for our regional marketing people so that they can do a better job on the smaller sponsorships that they invest in.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sponsorship.