Oceania Books

Behind the Mountain is a unique creation, more than a close, personal look at a most unusual place, Tasmania, "an appendix, an after thought" to the mainland of Australia. It is also the memoir of a brilliant, scholarly self-exile's return after twenty years and his coming-to-terms with the people and places that made him who he is.

Conrad had "escaped" from Tasmania at age twenty to attend university at Oxford and to start a new life. He had burned in the back yard all his diaries, exercise books, and "anything that might incriminate [him] by attaching an identity to [him]." He had left his home and family behind, intending never to return, believing that "Home was where you started from, not where you stayed." Twenty years older when he writes of revisiting Tasmania, he has discovered that despite his attempt to escape, "Tasmania had set the terms of [his] life. The home you cannot return to you carry off with you: it lies down the at the bottom of the world, and of the sleeping, imagining mind."

This search for identity and roots informs his travels within Tasmania and gives the book an immediacy and liveliness lacking in so many other studies of place. Tasmania, he explains, is "an offshore island off the shore of an offshore continent," its residents therefore the "victims of a twofold alienation," with nothing between them and Anarctica, the end of the world. Conrad turns his eagle eye, his thoughtful sensibility, his absolutely limitless vocabulary, and his extraordinary skills at description to the recreation of Tasmania from the air, from the water, from the farm, from the mountain, and even under the ground, all in vivid word pictures. You will travel with him, and experience the great good fortune of seeing the island through the eyes of a gifted and introspective native whose twenty-year absence has given him a perspective on life in Tasmania that enable him to communicate it with "outsiders."

Best of all, Conrad permits the reader to share his discovery that he had "placed [his] trust, mistakenly, in the myth of self-invention. You created yourself, and did so out of nothing." Instead, he finds, "we are all still pioneers, required to colonise the piece of ground which chance assigns us, to make it our own by shaping it into a small, autonomous intelligible world....[Tasmania] was the landscape inside me: the space where I spent my dreaming time....Tasmania had set the terms of my life."

Conrad's account of his return to Tasmania is a delightful journey in time, place and language. Tasmania's special place in history and geography is depicted in the special style that can only be invoked by the self-exile. His prose is rich with metaphor in dealing with his own life, Tasmania's physical features and the society English society imposed on it. Raised in a suburb north of the State Capital, Hobart [the world's most southern such], Conrad's childhood environment was overshadowed by the looming, capriciously moody Mount Wellington. Everything else about Tasmania was "Behind the Mountain."

Conrad is expressive about what it was like to be raised in a place that even the rest of Australia seemed to have forgotten - it was left off school maps of the Last Continent. As the site of imprisonment for the most incorrigible of Britain's transported felons, its white inhabitants later tried to erase their own history. Isolated, then, in place both globally and socially, its people clung to the only culture they could derive - the "home" that was England. Even when the rest of Australia sought ties with the Americans, Tasmania remained locked into their version of the "old country."

Conrad breaks the mould of that image. He's frank about the white's treatment of Tasmania's Aborigine population and culture. He contrasts the outlook that named and respected every mountain, stream or other physical feature of the island. The Parlemar people were rounded up in a series of paramilitary exercises, the most notorious that of the Black Line. The surviving Aborigines [some suicided from seaside cliffs] were exiled to Flinders Island and other off-shore sites to rot and die. Even their corpses were desecrated by amateur "anthropologists" keen to depict them as sub-humans, well deserving extinction. The eradication was absolute - Tasmania remains the only Australian State with no surviving indigenous population.

Conrad journeys over the island by bus and aircraft [he is unable to drive]. The jaunts confront us with bizarre naming practices the island was subjected to by white settlers. No Aborigine names were applied until the State's Hydro Commission attempted some restitution while building dams in the mountains. The attempt is simply a final instance of the paucity of knowledge of Aborigine culture. His tours take us to Port Davey, a week's walk from the nearest road end, and the distant, disreputable Macquarie Harbour. His map shows the anomaly of this extensive estuary with its entrance but 60 metres wide. It was truly the end of the world for many convicts who laboured their lives away under assault by winds originating off the South African coast.

His candor in descriptions of his life and his family is refreshing. He aspired to the exile he entered with unwarranted enthusiasm. The book opens with the conflagration of his childhood artifacts. He is later as disturbed by this sacrifice as we are while reading it. His evocative metaphors evoke the remorse to follow him as he recovers or recreates those childhood losses. The memories he solicits show a level of confusion about his own identity - at one point unable to discern whether the image in a photograph is himself or his father. Life on the Apple Isle could lead to such vague self-persona given the paucity of information about his roots. An alcoholic grandfather had simply been made to disappear by the rest of his family.

It's trite to state that any examination of one's roots can lead to disillusionment. But Conrad's return to this remote land provided an improved sense of self-identity. He returned to learn more of his natal surroundings than would have been possible had he not left. He demonstrates that all he learned during his journeys didn't require a comparison to his adopted land to be valuable. Every place he visited or researched provided new elements of his self-awareness in their own right. The book is an object lesson for anyone who has left home for other venues. Read it to learn of this faraway land, the brilliance of its re-discoverer, and perhaps some insight into your own outlook about where you are. It's a rewarding journey.

Margaret Wild and Janine Dawson's BOBBIE DAZZLER tells of Bobbie, an energetic wallaby who jumps, skips and bounces. Her friends are impressed with her prowess, but she can't do the thing she most wishes to do - the splits. Only after much practice does she achieve her goal in this funny, satisfying story of determination.

Bobbie Dazzler by Margaret Wild and Janine Dawson is a fun look at four animal friends. Bobbie is a Red-Necked Wallaby and her friends are Koala, Wombat, and Possum. Bobbie has lots of talents like hopping and skipping, but she is sad that she cannot do the splits. After many tries and a lot of determination she and all of her fiends master the new skill. The illustrations are charming I really enjoyed the view of the Australian native plants such as bottlebrushes, eucalyptus, banksias, and kangaroo paws. Karen Woodworth-Roman, www.librarians.info

You don't know me or my tastes from Adam. Why bother listening; well because I don't have an axe to grind or dollar to make.

James K Baxter is a great poet. Being a parochial New Zealander helps, but the way JKBaxter moves me spells 'good' in 6ft letters above my head.

Start with something fun 'An Ode on Mixed flatting' 1967 and work you're way round this collection. There is something for any mood you're in.

dorje@greenkiwi.co.nz

JKB is THE MOST underrated underappreciated poet to come out of the antipodes. This is not light reading!. Don't pick it up as before sleep fodder It deserves at least an entire cold, drizzly day by the fire.

The title of this book says it all. It is a complete guide to Easter Island--history, geography, banking and groceries all in one package. Definitely a must-read prior to a trip to the island, and to have on hand while trekking across Rapa Nui.

This guide is absolutely fabulous, whether you want to plan a trip to Easter Island (in the South Pacific, about 7 to 8 hours flight from Santiago, Chile) or just want to read about this exotic and remote island. I found the Guide fascinating and extremely helpful about all aspects regarding Easter Island, including where to stay, what historic sites to visit, and the eclectic history regarding Rapa Nui (as it's Polynesian name is known). A lot of thought and detail has been put into this hearty book. If Easter Island is on your mind, I recommend this book whole heartily.

This book is a great read to help you plan ahead for your adventure. Most importantly, it is easy to understand and gives you everything you need to know. It is difficult not to be enthusiastic or motivated after reading it.

Sven Klinge is the author of the most comprehensive cycling guide books in Australia. By combining cycling with walking treks, he has explored over 300 of Australia's National Parks and State Forests. Born in Sydney and educated at the University of Sydney, Sven now divides his time between accountancy and other writing projects. CYCLING THE BUSH: MOUNTAIN BIKING IN AUSTRALIA is a comprehensive guide to mountain biking and cycle touring down under. The range of rides includes short one day trips around the states' capitals to extended overnight cycling/walking expeditions in remote and rugged wilderness areas. Almost all of Great Dividing Range's major national parks are covered. Other parts deal with the coast and beaches, pristine lakes and rivers, spectacular waterfalls and lookouts, as well as the great outback, and our world heritage rainforests. Each ride incorporates data on distances, height variation, transport, access, track and rides grades, facilities, map references, and special equipment needed. Extensive information is provided on geological, biological, and historical aspects of natural, Aboriginal, and colonial features along the rides. In COMPACT, LIGHTWEIGHT FORMAT, this guide should be POCKET EQUIPMENT for every cyclist and bushwalker wishing to discover this exciting way of venturing into Australia's great national parks system.

This book includes a great amount of detail for designers. Covers winding, materials, magnetics, thermal considerations, etc. Has plenty of equations that are required for design. Both authors are well known and fellows of the IEEE.

The book lacks details of motor construction, which I have not found anywhere yet. Also wish it came with a software tutorial or something. But the best book on motors I have found yet, and I've looked (and bought) a number of them.

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It helped us a lot in designing our smoovy micro motors. Technically first class and well written, recommended to anybody who needs a good understanding of motor design issues.

The Lonely Planet books on diving are always a good bet on defining a place to dive.

Great photos and explanations of all the dive sites. Also road maps and location details. Very informative book. Small enough to take with you on your trip.

This survey of the El Nino phenomenon examines world systems of climate and change, bringing together the latest historical and scientific discoveries about El Nino and its effects on civilizations. Archaeological records and scientific surveys are used in the course of considering the past effects of El Nino and its possibilities for the future of Earth's climate.

The extreme weather condition known as El Nino is part of a much bigger world weather system linking the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Asian monsoon, and the Pacific El Nino. Several El Nino episodes took place during the Little Ice Age between 1200 and 1900, especially in the 1570-1740 time frame. Based upon archaeological findings as well as historical records, El Nino: History And Crisis is a superb history of the impact upon human civilizations of this phenomena down to the present day, and offers timely warnings of the likely effects of future weather-affecting climate changes on agriculture and public health. Highly recommended reading for anyone with an interest in the environment.

Bookbag...
A writer and photographer who splits his life between his native California and his adopted homeland of French Polynesia, Winston Conrad has put together a sampler of Pacific paradises. The title - Fabled Isles of the South Seas (dist. by ACCESS Publishers, $49.95) - says it all, or nearly, and Conrad's selection is hard to quarrel with, including as it does Tahiti and its Society Island neighbors, Pitcairn, the Cooks, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, and Easter Island. Conrad clearly knows the territory, and each of his essays conveys a personal take amplified by extended quotes from eminent literary visitors (Jack London to James Michener). The illustrations include both Conrad's own color photographs and a nice melange of drawings, historical charts, and old prints. It's the grand Pacific tour with an informed guide.

This handsome coffee-table book, which covers roughly the sweep from Tahiti to Easter Island, is the work of the photographer son of the writer/painter Barnaby Conrad. The brief text skillfully introduces the islands, incorporating quotations from famous earlier visitors such as Melville, Gauguin, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The photographs are well chosen and provocatively juxtaposed with historical images, including old postcards, portions of maps, and even postage stamps. Unlike many books of this genre, there is an emphasis on portraying the local people in their everyday activities, as well as views of stunning sunsets. Primarily a gift book for those planning a tour and a souvenir to remember it by, this book may be priced beyond the budgets of many libraries.- Harold M. Otness

I love this book! The pictures are wonderful. The authors have taken a very complex ecosystem and presented it in such a way that anyone with an interest in ecology will enjoy this book and find it easy to understand.
I like the way the book is broken down in to large categories. For example, there is a chapter on the sponges common to the fiords, the brachiopods, the echinoderms, the fishes, the mammals and so on. I found the glossary to be helpful when my memory needed a bit of refreshing, and the index is nice because they have listed common and scientific names.
The photographs are amazing. Very high quality and professional. The captions that accompany the pictures are also very well written and informative. As good as they are, however, they almost don't do the beauty of New Zealand justice. The scenery is breath taking and the fiords are a must see should you happen to have the opprotunity to visit New Zealand.

This is a fabulous book to buy if you are interested in learning about the unique ecosystems of the fiords. The pictures are beautiful and the information explaining how this unique enviornemnt exists is easy to read and understand. If you have visited New Zealand and want a book that shows the beauty under the sea, this is a winner.