the true story of the greatest pastoral landholder in modern history As a barely literate youth of thirteen, Sidney Kidman ran away from home and worked as an odd-job boy in a grog shanty in outback Australia. He went on to become the greatest pastoral landholder in modern history, acquiring a legendary reputation both at home and abroad as the Cattle King. Kidman was much more than a grazier. In addition to his many successful business ventures and his contributions to the war effort, he was driven by a grand plan for the remote arid areas of Australia. this kept him locked in a battle with the land - and against drought. Wealth, power, fame and honours did not change Sidney Kidman. He remained the homespun, gregarious bushman for whom men worked with an almost savage loyalty. Greatly admired, he also had many enemies, and in his later years was dogged by controversies and untruths. this book explores the fascinating Kidman legend, and gives a balanced, thoroughly entertaining account of this larger-than-life Australian and his exceptional achievements. 'An addictive read, embracing the romance of the bush and the hardship of the outback.' SUNDAY tIMES

Tells the story of the Gepps Cross abattoirs and saleyard complex, from its utopian concept through its years of growth and operation to its eventual ruin as a victim of competing interests. A comprehensive and abundantly illustrated history.

Roma Mitchell contributed importantly to her times, pioneering a new kind of womanhood and becoming an inspiration in terms of opportunities and freedoms for women in Australia.

Heroes, visionaries and eccentrics! Outback writer Marie Mahood is the author of the much loved Icing on the Damper and A Bunch of Strays. In the 1960s she raised cattle and kids on the world’s most remote cattle station, Mongrel Downs, in the Tanami Desert. Here she writes about the heroes, visionaries and eccentrics of Australia’s vast outback. Her thirty-two characters include the greatest drover and Gulf trekker of them all, Nat Buchanan: prince of poddy-dodgers Harry Readford; the cattle king Sidney Kidman; outback surveyor supreme and all-round good bloke Len Beadell; Aboriginal warrior Jandamarra; Mat Wilson at the NT Depot store; gun shearer Jackie Howe; drover Edna Zigenbine on the Murranji Track; explorer and goldmine Christy Palmerston in the heartland of Cape York Peninsula; eccentrics such as the Gulf Hero and the Barkly Hermit; and drovers who were also painters and poets of repute.