Hubert Who? by Malcolm
Andrews $32.99 (Harper
Collins)
Explorer,
pioneer aviator, war photographer, naturalist, meteorologist, author, student of
the paranormal, and secret agent, loyal lieutenant to Shackleton, Bean and
Hearst, the last man from the West to meet with Lenin ... Sir Hubert Wilkins
lived many lives - all of them exciting and fantastic. He shot the world′s
first movie footage from an aircraft (while strapped to its fuselage); and was
the first to fly over both polar ice caps. He was the first man to attempt to
take a submarine under the North Pole, a spy for the British in Soviet Russia
and the Americans in the Far East, and an enlightened friend to Aboriginal
people in outback Australia. Yet this South Australian farmboy is barely
acknowledged here in his homeland.
River
by Brian Simmonds $35 Hardback (Fremantle)
Award-winning
artist Brian Simmonds brings Australia's waterways to life with his oils and
mixed media colour paintings and sketches. Over ninety beautiful illustrations
accompany uniquely local poetry and prose from well-known writers such as John
Kinsella, T A G Hungerford and Elizabeth Jolley. The perfect contemporary
souvenir book that captures the spirit of the Australian shoreline and the Swan
River. A must for all art/Perth lovers!
The Biggest Estate on Earth by back
Across
Australia, early Europeans commented that the land looked like a park. With
extensive grassy patches and pathways, open woodlands and abundant wildlife, it
evoked a country estate. Bill Gammage has discovered this was because Aboriginal
people managed the land in a far more systematic and scientific fashion than we
have ever realised. For over a decade, Gammage has examined written and visual
records of the Australian landscape. He has uncovered an extraordinarily complex
system of land management using fire and the life cycles of native plants to
ensure plentiful wildlife and plant foods throughout the year. We know
Aboriginal people spent far less time and effort than Europeans in securing food
and shelter, and now we know how they did it.
There
Goes the Neighbourhood by Michael Wesley Paperback $32.95 (New South)
For
the first time in history, Australia will be uncomfortably close to the designs
and demarches of competing great powers. In the years ahead, we will no longer
be too small to make a difference. In his book, Wesley points to the key
economic and political issues that we need to be considering right now, as a
western country geographically and economically tied to Asia, and urgently calls
for a renewed public engagement and debate.
Land
of
Here
is our long awaited history of