This unique book is the only fully interdisciplinary and comprehensive study of the Australian desert and its pivotal role in the cultural history of Australia. Beginning with the prehistory of the continent, it engages with geology, the Aboriginal Dreaming narratives of origin, the arrival of the first Australians, Aboriginal culture of the Dreaming, anthropology, colonial history and the cult of the inland explorer-hero, and integration of the central deserts through the responses of writers, artists, and filmmakers into the national identity. Chapters explore the unique way Indigenous artists have evolved a method of expressing their spiritual relationship to Country, while hiding from uninitiated eyes the secret-sacred meaning beneath the paint. It takes us on a journey through the politics of Land Rights for First Nations peoples, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and an analysis of Indigenous ecological principles which may suggest a new and radical approach to navigating climate change in the Anthropocene. The Australian Desert is written for scholars of fine arts, anthropology, literature, film studies, cultural history, Indigenous studies, ecology and tourism, and for anyone interested in deserts.

Although the product of a self-proclaimed consensus politics, the British Empire was always based on communications supremacy and the knowledge of the atmosphere. Using the metaphor of a thread of five pieces representing the categories science, industry, government, the military, and the education, this is the first book to study the relations between wireless and Empire throughout the interwar period. It is also the first to make full use of the abundant archive material and rich sources existing in Britain and the Dominions. The book examines the evolving connection between the development of imperial radio communications and atmospheric physics; the expansion and strength of the British radio industry and its relationship with the elucidation of the ionosphere; and the different extent to which Australia, Canada and New Zealand managed to emulate the British model of radio R&D in the interwar years. The book ends with a highly original and provocative epilogue: 'The realist interpretation of the atmosphere'.

Patrick White (1912–1990) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973 and remains one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. In 2006, White’s literary executor, Barbara Mobbs, released a highly significant collection of hitherto unpublished papers, reviving mainstream and scholarly interest in his work. 'Patrick White Beyond the Grave' considers White’s writing in light of the new findings, acknowledging his homosexuality in relation to the development of his literary style, examining the way he engages his readers, and contextualizing his life and oeuvre in relation to London and to London life. Thought-provoking, this collection of original essays represents the work of an outstanding list of White scholars from around the globe, and will no doubt inspire further work on White from a rising generation of scholars of twentieth-century literature beyond Australia.

A fascinating cultural studies account of the "afterlife" of Leichhardt, revealing both German entanglement in British colonialism in Australia, and in a broader sense, what happens when we maintain an open stance to the ghosts of the past.

A complete listing of all 721 titles published since the inception of UNSW Press in 1962

The Aboriginal Story of Burke and Wills is the first major study of Aboriginal associations with the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860–61. A main theme of the book is the contrast between the skills, perceptions and knowledge of the Indigenous people and those of the new arrivals, and the extent to which this affected the outcome of the expedition. The book offers a reinterpretation of the literature surrounding Burke and Wills, using official correspondence, expedition journals and diaries, visual art, and archaeological and linguistic research – and then complements this with references to Aboriginal oral histories and social memory. It highlights the interaction of expedition members with Aboriginal people and their subsequent contribution to Aboriginal studies. The book also considers contemporary and multi-disciplinary critiques that the expedition members were, on the whole, deficient in bush craft, especially in light of the expedition’s failure to use Aboriginal guides in any systematic way. Generously illustrated with historical photographs and line drawings, The Aboriginal Story of Burke and Wills is an important resource for Indigenous people, Burke and Wills history enthusiasts and the wider community. This book is the outcome of an Australian Research Council project.

The Strehlow Archive is one of Australia's most important collections of film, sound, archival records and museum objects relating to the ceremonial life of Aboriginal people. The aim of this book is to provide a significant study of the relationship of archives to contemporary forms of digital mediation. The volume introduces a specific archive, the Strehlow Collection, and tracks the ways in which its materials and research dissemination practices are influenced by media forms we now identify with the emergence of digital technology.