One of a series of meticulously researched, historical novels in which each book is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event or time period in Australian history. Lizzie Harvey, a convict transported to Sydney Cove, is starved and overworked. She has to fetch water, mend clothes, please her master, care for his china-doll daughter and tiptoe around his moody soldier son. She can barely find time to dream about the way things used to be, let alone write in her diary. But write she must. It is her only hope of reaching out to the home she has left behind, all those thousands of miles across the sea.

Once there was nothing. Then there was something . . . Come on a fascinating journey through time - from the explosive beginnings of our planet through the formation of the Australian landscape, from the deeply entrenched history of our Indigenous people to modern-day Australia. Beginning with the creation of our country's landmass and climate, 'Australian Story: An Illustrated Timeline' presents the key moments in our country's geographical, faunal and floral formation, and later human settlement. Illustrated with a striking collection of photographs and images from the NLA's digital collection, this is history for children like never before. A fascinating snapshot of our country, 'Australian Story' tells who we once were, who we are today . . . and where we are going.

'I said to Mum that the sky-workers must have really good heads for heights, but she said, "Either that, or they have a family to feed and will do anything for a job that pays."' It is 1932 and Sydney has hit hard times but the construction of a bridge that will reach across the harbour is setting spirits soaring. Both Alice and Billy tell the story of building the spectacular Harbour Bridge which will link the north shore to the working class suburbs of the south and unify a separated city.

Archie's two brothers are fighting in the battlefields of World War II. Des has been sent with the militia to fight in the treacherous landscape of the jungles of New Guinea against the Japanese-and his brother Harold is about to join him, after surviving the campaign in the Middle East. There is nothing between Australia and a Japanese invasion except a small band of brave soldiers, fighting rain, mud, malaria and machine guns.

I woke up this morning and I couldn't stop crying, cos this place is not my home, even though everyone says it is. When I was a little girl Mum would always hug me when I cried and tell me everything would be all right. Who's gunna hug me here? Mary lives with the Burkes, but they're not her real family. She hasn't seen her real mum and dad since she was taken away from them five years ago. Everyone tells her to forget about them, but she can't. She wants to find out why she was taken, and where she really belongs.

I'm Australian! How about you? Many people from many places have come across the seas, to make Australia their home. How Australian is that?

Davey only wants to be one thing: a lifesaver. In his world, they’re larger-than-life, walking, talking heroes. He’s too young, but he starts to train in secret, challenging himself in the Bondi surf. But his secret comes to light one hot Sunday in 1938–a day that was to become infamous. This story is set against the colourful world and characters of Bondi, after the Depression and just before the start of World War II, as ominous signs emerge from Europe and Jewish refugees arrive in Bondi.