Oceania Books

"Australia -journey of a timeless land" is a great book about a surely great land. The texts by roff smith present all the territories of the continent, góing from the north to the west coast, the southern vineyards to the eastcoast. Smith writes about the historical development, the social and political status quo, every time in a interesting way, often using a personal point of view, areporters point of view. The aborigines-tragedy has room as has the cruels of Tasmanias prisons of the 18th Century Really marvellous and overwhelming are the photographs of national-geographic stuff-member sam abell. Great landscapes, the special light of morning or evening gives the land a structure. Abell is able to bring the feeling of space on a simple sheet. And he captures with his mostley wide-angle optics decessif moments, where time and space meet at an certain point. And I think, time and space, open space are specific for Australia, that i have not ever visited. Sam Abell is a great artist, more than a photojournalist. You should read his "stay this moment"-book also. This australia-book is worth every dolllar.

Although I have not yet traveled with this book, I purchased it in order to help plan my upcoming vacation. This atlas contains quite a bit of additional information on Australia that I found to be helpful. I was particularly impressed with the detail pertaining to the description and quality of roadways and the available faclities for travelers. I found the format, photography, and writing style to be pleasant; the legends were clear and easy to interpret. However, as an atlas, I would have preferred that the larger maps be printed in such a manner that they would be displayed in their entirety by simply opening the book, as opposed to be divided between different pages.

This is a decent map. Has large scale views of the urban centers but it could be a little better in a couple of respects. There are no longitudes and latitudes on the map. This is not the 1st map I have run across with this problem. With all the GPS devices in use, you would think the map makers would have provided this helpful information. There is no index to the national parks. Trying to find them on the map is a real hunt and search task. Also rivers are not indexed, only towns.

I enjoyed navigating through this book and found it useful. The book gave me ideas and hints to make my trip more enjoyable

We used this guide to plan our 3 week trip to Australia because we were so impressed with the South America edition which we had used previously. It was very helpful and accurate regarding various costs. It even gives planning tips depending on how much time you have. It is definitely a good alternative to the Lonely Planet which I sometimes find the info to be outdated.

This book and its associated Website are very useful in organizing stays at b&b's throughout Australia, since there is no central organization like the AA in Britain to do so. I found all the information that I used in this book to be accurate, and many of the properties have their email addresses listed, enabling one to make reservations overseas without the necessity of expensive trans-Pacific c-telephone calls or faxes.

A few minor improvements are in order. First, some of the listings do not provide the Postcode (Zip Code) for the property. Second, some of the telephone numbers given in the book do not reflect the ahanges to Australia's telephone numbering system comleted in 1998. Third, the coverage outside of New South Wales, Victoria, Brisbane/Gold Coast and Cairns/Far North is kind of thin--of course, that may be because there are fewer properties there.

This a well written book covering the Royal Australian Air Force
from its origins as the Australian Flying Corps in World War 1 to
2001. The author expresses forthright opinions on politicians and
on senior RAAF officers.
As regards World War 2 he emphasises the significant contribution
made by Australian aircrew to the allied bomber offensive against
Germany and stresses the very high casuality rate.
He discusses the main aircraft types used by the force.
There are good photographs of significant players and aircraft.
All in all a most interesting book

This book axamines the position of non-indigenous Australians who are sensitive to the great injustices done to Aboriginal people by the European "invaders", but who love the land of their birth and want to belong to it in a way which is both meaningful and yet sensitive to Aboriginal culture.

No doubt some of this could also apply to other countries such as New Zealand, USA, Canada, etc.

Read's style is very contemporary, and he uses extensively the thoughts and experiences of a wide variety of today's Australians, both indigenous and non-indigenous.

A very readable and thought provoking book.

With so many ficticious accounts of battle out there, it is truly refreshing to read such a realistic insight into a soldier's life during war. Bravo, and thank you for sharing your experience, wisdom, and bravery with the world.

I wrote this review in 2006, and it was published in Pacific Affairs, Summer 2006: volume 79, No. 2.



This is an important volume that belongs in the library of anyone seriously interested in Bougainville before - and after - the conflict. Like all volumes that derive from conferences, it contains a variety of viewpoints and professional orientations - so many that it might be subtitled "Ways of Seeing Bougainville." Although the first two sections of the book's five sections are written by "the usual suspects," the next three sections include work by authors new to me. It is a fine thing to see new names associated with Bougainville research and commentary, and even finer that among the 23 authors (of 30 chapters) 6 are Bougainvilleans. (Disclaimer: I am a Bougainville anthropologist and know many of the authors; I was asked to contribute a chapter, but was unable to do so in time for the publication.)

Contributors to the first section ("The Place and the People") represent archaeology, geology, linguistics, and anthropology. All make the point that Bougainville language and culture is impressively diverse and complex. For example, there are perhaps 25 languages among some 175,000 people. Numeric caution is required here, as elsewhere in the book: the authors have as many ways of counting and classifying as ways of seeing. This is a virtue, not a defect, because Bougainville has been in state of flux for many decades. These, and other, chapters offer no support for those who might prefer to characterize Bougainvilleans as homogenous.

The second section ("The Colonial Period to World War II") is the work of historians. The chapters are of uneven quality, and overlap considerably. There is ritual flogging of Eurocentric observers: Elder accuses Thurnwald, Blackwood, Chinnery, and Oliver of "extracting intellectual property in the form of sociological and ethnographic data..." (164); I cannot think how what they did differs from what a modern fieldworker does. Helga Griffin, in a chapter dominated by praise for Thurnwald, attempts to locate "hidden values" (205) among fieldworkers of the 60s and 70s, but the connections seem superficial.

I found the third section ("Economic and Social Change Post-World War II") the most interesting. The contributors - economist, agricultural researcher (Buin), miner, historian, politicians (Buin; Torau), teacher (Buin) are a varied lot, and ironies abound. For example, Lummani wonders whether Francis Ona and the BRA's attempt to "restore egalitarian fairness by trying to suppress developmental change" may actually have "contributed to an ever-widening situation of inequality" because Bougainvilleans "are even more dependent on cash-crop income than before the conflict" (252). The other chapters give examples of unintended and unforeseen consequences, perhaps nowhere more than in Vernon's contribution - a forthright statement from a CRA/BCL miner's perspective. I found his many "had we only known..." statements unconvincing. The information Vernon regrets not having could not have been difficult to obtain; the search for "hidden values" would be fruitful here.

The fourth section ("Persepectives [sic] on Particular Bougainville Societies") comprises competent journeyman descriptions of Buin, Haku, Nasioi, and Nagovisi. The writers - all anthropologists, one a Bougainvillean - also provide short, impressionistic post-conflict portraits.
The final section ("Towards Understanding the Origins of the Conflict") is especially useful because both writers were importantly involved with the crisis and its aftermath: Regan as an outside advisor, and Tanis (Nagovisi) as a BRA functionary, a peace process worker, and BIPG Minister. Tanis' piece moves effectively between detailed descriptions of village life and the broad sweep of the Crisis.

One final comment. Most of the authors take pains to cite multiple causes of socioeconomic change and the conflict. The list is not surprising: missionization, plantations, WW II, cash cropping, the copper mine, unwelcome migrants, and others. However, I was astonished to find only one (passing) reference to the taro blight that fundamentally altered subsistence and forced dramatic socioeconomic change in many areas in the post-WWII period. If this volume has a systemic defect, it is that the authors commonly explain change exclusively in terms of human behavior. None of the authors (except Lummani) consider ecological factors except as asides or when assessing mine-related environmental disasters. It is sad that a volume representing multiple points of view lacks this important perspective.


Buffalo State College, Buffalo, New York, USA DON MITCHELL