Sam Blain and Ben Fisher migrated to Australia from Great Britain in mid-1871 to work on the steam tug the Young Australian, on the Roper River during the construction of the overland telegraph line. Years later, the families moved to Winton, where Sam and Ben worked as shearers at Oondooroo shed and were involved in the shearers strikes of the 1890s. After many years of hardship, World War I arrived. Ben Fisher's son Jack headed back to the Roper River while Sam Blain's son, Jimmy, who had always been interested in the wings of flight, went over to England to join the RAF. When Jimmy arrived home from the war, he found he had a crippled son. This is the life story of the crippled boy, Johnny Blain, who struggled through everyday life but strode to follow in his father's footsteps in the wings of flight.

Reproduction of the original: Reminiscences of Queensland 1862-1899 by William Henry Corfield

This fascinating book is a firsthand account of the adventures of an ornithological field team studying long-tailed finches in outback Australia. In 1991, Nancy Burley, a noted behavioral ecologist, and her husband, Richard Symanski, went to Australia with their one-year-old son and four American students hired as field assistants and babysitter. The social relationships and problems that developed among these individuals in confined and exotic settings and the scientific discoveries that did—and did not—take place form the heart of the book. Symanski begins by telling how he and his wife set up this elaborate field expedition—including the hiring of what seemed to be qualified, compatible, and knowledgeable field assistants. He then describes the harsh realities of their circumstances in Australia: primitive living conditions on an outback cattle station; field sites and subjects for study that were not as expected; and students who were not prepared for the rigors of field life and who became unenthusiastic about the work for which they had been hired. And he tells how he and his wife strove to overcome all the different challenges with which they were confronted. The book provides insight into the demands of professor-student-based fieldwork, particularly when generational conflicts, differing expectations, and culture shock complicate the “business” of doing science.

"... The first book of poems to be published by an Australian aboriginal" -- Foreword.

Sir William Glasgow is a fascinating and valuable book that tells the story of this once famous figure: his early service in the Boer War, a career in the AIF which included serving at Gallipoli and distinguished command at the Western Front, and a knighthood and distinguished career in the Commonwealth Government and the diplomatic service. This meticulously researched portrait reveals much about Australia at war and peace in the first half of the 20th century.