lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Australian colonial history

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92950 Anonymous A Month in the Bush of Australia - Australiana Facsimile Editions No. 114 Journal of One of a Party of Gentlemen Who Recently Travelled from Sydney to Port Philip with Some Remarks on the Present State of the Farming Establishments and Society in the Settled Parts of the Argyle Country. Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide SA, 1965. Facsimile reprint: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling; 60pp. Mild wear; boards rubbed with some marks and sunning; offset to the endpapers; previous owner's ink inscription to the flyleaf; text block edges lightly toned and spotted. No dustwrapper. Very good. "The increasing interest which that part of the Public, who have directed their attention to our Australian possessions, take in every thing that relates to them, as well as the anxious desire of those who have intentions of Emigrating, to know any little particulars of the modes of the Country they are about to sojourn in, make it probable that a "Journal of a Journey lately made to Port Philip overland from Sydney", by a party of Gentlemen long resident in the Colony, will not be unacceptable. It was intended only for the circle of the Writer's own Family, and, in the liberty of giving it to a wider circulation, unknown to its Author, must be found whatever apology is necessary for its imperfections, being a literal copy of the original..." Click here to order $30

82416 Baxter, Carol Breaking the Bank: signed copy An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008. Signed paperback, octavo; 350pp., colour plates. Minimal wear; fine. It was the largest bank robbery in Australian history. On Sunday 14 September 1828, thieves tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of Sydney's Bank of Australia and stole 14,000 pound in notes and cash - the equivalent of $20 million in today's currency. This audacious group of convicts not only defied the weekly exhortation 'thou shalt not steal!', they targeted the bank owned by the colony's self-anointed nobility. Delighted at this affront to their betters, Sydney's largely criminal and ex-criminal population did all they could to undermine the authorities' attempts to catch the robbers and retrieve the spoils. While the desperate bank directors offered increasingly large rewards and the government officers cast longing looks at the gallows, the robbers continued to elude detection. Then one day... With a rich cast of characters who refused to abase themselves to the establishment, this meticulously researched and fast-paced history tells the story of the daring Bank of Australia robbery and of the scheming robbers, greedy receivers and unfortunate suspects whose lives were irrevocably changed by this outrageous crime. Click here to order $20

95399 Clarke, Peter Hell and Paradise - signed copy The Norfolk Bounty Pitcairn Saga Shearwater Press, Point Ross Norfolk Island, 1995. Square quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and endpaper maps; 189pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly rolled; minor insect damage to the top edge of the lower board; some scraping to the spine extremities; previous owner's ink inscription to the flyleaf; signed in ink by the author on the front free endpaper. Dustwrapper is rubbed and sunned along the spine panel (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good. Click here to order $23

99238 Currey, C.H. The Transportation, Escape and Pardoning of Mary Bryant Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1963. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; black boards with gilt spine titling and pink endpapers; 62pp., top edges dyed red. Owner's name. One or two scattered spots on early pages; toned and spotted text block edges. Red and green illustrated dustwrapper with a few scrapes; rubbing and scraping along fore-edges and spine panel edges with chipping at panel extremities and corners; long crease with adjoining scrape and tiny missing segment to lower front edge. Very good and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film with white paper backing. In 1786 Mary Bryant [nee Broad] was convicted of assault and robbery and sentenced to be hanged. She was subsequently transported to Sydney. In 1791 she escaped the convict settlement with her two children, her husband, William Bryant and seven other felons. Click here to order $20

200529 Evans, Susanna Historic Brisbane and its Early Artists: A Pictorial History - signed Comprising Paintings and Drawings that Record the Development of Brisbane from Early Convict Settlement to the End of the Victorian Era with Biographies of their Artists Boolarong Publications, Ascot Qld., 1982. Quarto; hardcover, with decorated endpapers; 119pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; slightly rolled; some mild scraping to the spine extremities and board edges; text block edges spotted; an ink stain to the top joint; a bookplate signed in ink by the author with a dedication by the previous owner to the verso of the flyleaf. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn with sunning to the spine panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Laid in: two photographs of topical interest with a note. Susanna de Vries (nee Evans) has been a collector and restorer of antiquarian prints and drawings ever since she attended a cataloguing and restoration course held in London, under the auspices of the Victoria and Albert Museum. On her arrival in Brisbane in 1975, she was fascinated by Brisbane's early Colonial architecture and her training in librarianship provided valuable assistance in discovering the whereabouts, in Australia and overseas, of the paintings of Brisbane's architectural heritage. Research into the lives of the artists behind these works - many previously unknown - took over three years and involved the examination of art collections in Queensland, New South Wales, Great Britain and Canada. This unique and informative book has been long awaited by collectors and those interested in early Australian paintings as well as the historic and architectural development of Brisbane. Click here to order $32

75034 Falkiner, Suzanne, & Alan Oldfield Lizard Island The Journey of Mary Watson Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW, 2000. Quarto; hardcover; 235pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear. Edgewear to dustwrapper; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good to near fine. Mary Watson was 21 years old and had been married less than two years when, in early October 1881, after mainland Aborigines had attacked two workmen at her absent husband's beche-de-mer station, she set herself adrift in a cut-down ship's water tank with her baby, Ferrier, and a wounded Chinese servant, Ah Sam. They died of thirst on an island over 60 kilometres away, some eight days after their departure. At Cooktown it was assumed that Mary Watson had been kidnapped and killed and, when the bodies were found some time later, they were returned for a funeral which became Cooktown's biggest public event, uniting the town in appreciation of her undaunted spirit. Mary Watson, whose diary describing their last days was found with the remains, became an emblem of pioneer heroism for many Queenslanders. In the meantime, however, a terrible retribution had been visited on the local indigenous people, whom the police were quick to assume had been responsible for the deaths. Click here to order $30

32735 Gold, Geoffrey Eureka Rebellion Beneath the Southern Cross Rigby, Adelaide SA, 1977. Large quarto hardcover; blue boards with white spine titling, decorated blue and white endpapers; 119pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; a few scrapes on board corners and edges; spotting to text block edges; dustwrapper spine slightly faded. Very good to near fine and wrapper now covered in protective film with white paper backing. 30th of November 1854, and the diggers on the Ballarat goldfields met to debate the tyranny of the British colonial government. Captain Ross of Toronto raised the Southern Cross battle flag which he designed for the rebel diggers and Peter Lalor, an Irishman, was elected Commander-in-chief upon the motion of Italian Rafaello Carboni and Prussian Edward Thonen. Some five hundred armed diggers stepped forward, electrified by the circumstances, as Lalor knelt before the flag and exclaimed in a firm and measured tone: "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and liberties!" The diggers then formed into battalions and pledged their allegiance to their new flag, the "Australian flag of independence"... A new legend was born. The rebellion at the Eureka Stockade had grown, from scattered agitation for democratic reform to an armed uprising in defence of liberty and freedom, and for the independence of Australia. Its spirit and objectives have lived on, inspiring new generations of Australians as an heroic and patriotic symbol. Click here to order $27

202048 Heard, Dora (ed.) The Journal of Charles O'Hara Booth - limited edition Commandant of the Port Arthur Penal Settlement The Tasmanian Historical Research Association, Sandy Bay TAS, 1981. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles; 298pp., with a colour frontispiece, maps and 10pp. of colour and monochrome plates. Mild wear; text block edges lightly spotted; faint offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed and edgeworn. Very good. Published in an edition of 1000 copies only. Charles O'Hara Booth (1800-1851), soldier and penal administrator in Van Diemen's Land, served as officer in the British Army from 1816, his service including periods in India and the West Indies. Arriving in Van Diemen's Land in 1833, he was appointed commandant of the Port Arthur penal settlement, a position he held until 1844. Obliged by failing health to seek a less-demanding occupation, O'Hara Booth was, until his death in 1851, Superintendent of the Queen's Orphan Schools, New Town, near Hobart. Booth began his journal in 1815 at the age of fourteen and continued to record his activities until his marriage in 1838. The bulk of the material contained in this work relates to his life at Port Arthur in Van Diemen's Land, entries which were recorded almost daily. Click here to order $45

97871 Hocking, Geoff Eureka Stockade: The Events Leading to the Attack in the Pre-Dawn of 3 December 1854 A Pictorial History Five Mile Press, Rowville, 2004. Quarto paperback; 207pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild rubbing and wear to cover edges; a few faint spots on upper text block edges Very good to near fine. Click here to order $18

202967 Hunter, Capt. John An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island Including the Journals of Governors Phillip and King, Since the Publication of Phillip's Voyage. With an Abridged Account of the New Discoveries in the South Seas. By John Hunter Esqr. Post Captain in His Majesty's Navy. To Which is prefixed A Life of the Author, And Illustrated with a Map of the Country by Lieut. Dawes And Other Embellishments. John Stockdale, London, 1793. Octavo; hardcover, half-bound in calf with marbled boards, with gilt spine titles on red morocco labels between five raised bands decorated in gilt; 538pp. [2 Blank + xxivpp. + 17-525pp. + 1p. (advert) + 2 Blank], on laid paper with marbled edges, with a monochrome engraved portrait frontispiece, an illustrated title page ("Captain Hunter offering fish to an Aboriginal Woman"), a folding chart of New South Wales and a folding plate likewise. Moderate wear; boards and edges rubbed; joints scraped; crackling to the spine leather; spine head lightly pulled; light scattered foxing and mild offset throughout; some toning to the map edges; previous owner's ink inscription to the front pastedown. Very good. Originally published in a quarto format in 1793, a decision was made to release a smaller version of the Journal later in the same year, which was intended "sufficiently [to] gratify the curiosity of those who may not have leisure to peruse, or are not desirous of purchasing, the quarto edition". The second issue required some re-thinking of the original format and the engraved title page was printed slightly too large for the new layout and had to be trimmed before insertion, as is the case here. This condensed version of the original release is far scarcer than the quarto issue and, like the original, contains a plate depicting a group of aborigines - "A Family of New South Wales" - which was engraved by William Blake after a sketch by Governor King. Blake has idealised the features of the figures giving them a dignity absent from King's plain sketch, which is in the collection of the Sydney's Mitchell Library. (Ferguson 153; Wantrup 14a). This copy of the work was previously owned by Sir Joseph Palmer Abbott, the distinguished Australian politician and solicitor. Click here to order $2000

74456 [J. Walch & Sons] Walch's Tasmanian Almanac for 1884 Being bissextile, or leap year, the forty-seventh and forty-eighth years of the reign of her present majesty Queen Victoria, and the eightieth year of the settlement of the colony. J. Walch & Sons, Hobart TAS, 1884. Octavo; full crimson morocco, with gilt spine and upper board titling, blind-stamped board decorations and endpaper advertisements; 290pp., with 101pp. of advertisements and a folding map of Tasmania. Shaken; boards are well-worn and stained; gilt titling has been almost completely worn off the spine; front joint is quite tender, but holding; some offset to the endpapers; mild toning to the pages and text block edges. No dustwrapper. Else very good. Click here to order $85

96780 Jordan, Robert The Convict Theatres of Early Australia 1788-1840 Currency House Inc., Strawberry Hills NSW, 2002. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and endpaper maps; 370pp., with monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; some spots to the text block fore-edge. Dustwrapper with some mild edgewear (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Near fine. Robert Jordan's research brings to life, in brilliant form, the shadowy figures that created the Australian convict colony's first entertainment. Fascinatingly, these theatres were not, as had been thought, the initiative of soldiers and settlers nostalgic for home, but of hard-living convicts serving time at the end of the world. Here is a society creating its own rules, its own class system based on enterprise and exploitation. The book analyses the impact on the theatres of the convicts' tastes and origins, the temperaments of powerful individuals and the shifting views of penal servitude. As the centres of power changed, the theatres quickly became fields in which battles for supremacy were fought, between convicts and authority and between friends and enemies of the participants. Robert Jordan has combed through British and colonial newspapers, official and private correspondence, court records, statistics and logbooks to uncover these stories. He reveals previously unknown theatre ventures and greatly extends our knowledge of familiar ones, notably Robert Sidaway's Sydney Theatre and the Emu Plains and Norfolk Island playhouses. In the process we come to know a gallery of colourful characters, from Sara McCann - London madam and comforter of a royal duke - to James Lawrence - cardsharp, standover man, thief, liar and professional actor. A substantial appendix provides biographies of the 42 convicts and soldiers known to have been active in the theatres before 1800. Click here to order $50

215383 Landsborough, William (Introduction by Valmai Hankel) Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria In Search of Burke & Wills Friends of the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide SA, 2000. Facsimile reprint: octavo; hardcover, full cloth decorated in blind with gilt spine-titling, with a folding map in a pocket to the rear pastedown; 103pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece. Minor wear. No dustwrapper as issued. Near fine. "Everyone has heard of the explorers Burke and Wills, who died when attempting to cross the Australian continent in 1861, but few will know of William Landsborough, a quiet unassuming man who in the middle of the 19th century explored and opened up vast areas of land in north-eastern Australia to settlement and farming. He was considered such a good bushman and explorer that he was chosen to lead one of the four search parties sent out to look for Burke and Wills in 1861. In the process of this search he became the first man to cross Australia from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Melbourne. Adding even more interest to this already fascinating story, is the account of William's boat trip north to the Gulf of Carpentaria to commence the search, during which he survived shipwreck and mutiny on one of the Barrier Reef islands. In his day, Landsborough's exploits were feted but now he is largely unknown, ironically perhaps because he was such a capable bushman and explorer that he lived to tell the tale." Click here to order $80

87450 The Library Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament Historical Records of Australia - 36 Volumes Series I: Governors' Despatches to and from England ; Series III: Despatches and Papers Relating to the Settlement of the States; Series IV: Legal Papers William Applegate Gullick, Government Printer, Sydney, 1914-1925; Australian Government Printer, 1997; Melbourne University Press, 2003 & 2006. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles. Series I: 26 volumes. Vol. I (reprint, 1971): xxvii + 822pp.; vol. II (1914): xx + 796pp; vol. III (1915): xxi + 863pp; vol. IV (1915): xvii + 758pp; vol. V (1915): xiv + 909pp; vol. VI (1916): xxxvii + 800pp; vol. VII (1916): xx + 908pp; vol. VIII (1916): xviii + 739pp; vol. IX (1917): xxi + 967pp; vol. X (1917): xvii + 937pp; vol. XI (1917): xxvi + 1039pp; vol. XII (1919): xvii + 911pp; vol. XIII (1920): xviii + 947pp; vol. XIV (1922): xxi + 1024pp; vol. XV (1922): xiv + 981pp; vol. XVI (1923): x + 958pp; vol. XVII (1923) xvii + 859pp; vol. XVIII (1923): xxviii + 926pp; vol. XIX (1923): xii + 891pp; vol. XX (1924): xxiv + 950pp; vol. XXI (1924): xiv + 849pp; vol. XXII (1924): xvii + 923pp; vol. XXIII (1925): xviii + 937pp; vol. XXIV (1925): xvii + 936pp; vol. XXV (1925): xiv + 857pp; vol. XXVI (1925): xvii + 873pp. Series III: 9 volumes. Vol. I (1921): xxxiii + 920pp; vol. II (1921): xxi + 8744pp; vol. III (1921): xvi + 1052pp; vol. IV (1921): xviii + 975pp; vol. V (1922): xxi + 959pp; vol. VI (1923): xxi + 959pp; vol. VII (1997 - Resumed Series): lxxxvi + 930pp; vol. VIII (2003): cviii + 1379pp; vol. IX (2006): cxxxix + 1091pp. Series IV: 1 volume. Vol. I (1922): xlv + 1027pp. Minor wear; owner's name stamp to front endpapers and text block edges; foxed preliminaries; spotted and toned text block edges; series I, vol. XIX has small tape repairs to the final pages. Very good copy of the complete set. Series II never issued. Click here to order $2500

215382 McDouall Stuart, John Explorations Across the Continent of Australia, with Charts, 1861-62 Friends of the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide SA, 1996. Facsimile reprint: octavo; hardcover, full cloth decorated in blind with gilt spine-titling; 103pp., with a folding chart. Minor wear. No dustwrapper as issued. Near fine. Stuart and his team left Adelaide in 1859, returning four years later after having crossed the continent from south to the north and back. Their travels helped to reveal the real nature of Australia's red heart, and yet their efforts were all but eclipsed by the tragic failure that was the Burke and Wills Expedition which set out into oblivion during the time that Stuart and his men were away. Stuart was not well-known or respected before his achievements and little concrete is known of him; this facsimile reprint of his journal helps clarify the smokey image we have of the "Napoleon of Explorers" as he was known, and brings him back to our attention. Click here to order $80

205873 Mackaness, George Admiral Arthur Phillip Founder of New South Wales, 1738-1814 Angus & Robertson Ltd., Sydney NSW, 1937. First edition: royal octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titles and blind-ruled upper board, decorated in blind; 536pp., with a monochrome frontispiece. 34 plates likewise (some folding) and a folding chart. Mild wear; mild bumping to the boards corners; text block top edge lightly dusted; offset to the endpapers; previous owner's pencilled name to the flyleaf. Lacks dustwrapper. Very good. Click here to order $120

94234 Mackaness, George Alexander Dalrymple's "A Serious Address to the Public on the Intended Thief Colony at Botany Bay" - signed by the author With a Memoir; with Four Illustrations D.S. Ford Printer, Sydney NSW, 1943. Quarto; paperback, stapled brochure in printed yapp covers; 39pp. with four monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers rubbed and scraped along the spine with some minor creasing; signed and numbered in ink on the limitations page. Very good to near fine. Number 9 of only 90 copies. "As the first to hold the post of Hydrographer to the Admiralty, Dalrymple's work was especially onerous and important, involving not only the collecting, collating and publishing of a large number of charts, but also the organising of a department till then non-existent. This work he performed with great industry and zeal, if not always with good discretion. His services were unquestionably good, though he seems to have placed on them a higher value than did his superiors for the time being. For this reason he was involved in frequent unpleasantnesses, and experienced many mortifications and disappointments. As one of his contemporaries wrote: 'Mr. Dalrymple was in fact an impracticable and obstinate man, and very difficult to be diverted from any plan or project he had conceived.'" - George Mackanness. Click here to order $45

94235 Mackaness, George "The Van Diemen's Land Warriors" - signed by the author With an essay on Matthew Brady; with Five Illustrations D.S. Ford Printer, Sydney NSW, 1944. Quarto; paperback, stapled brochure in printed yapp covers; 33pp. with five monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; covers lightly sunned with some mild moisture damage along the spine; signed and numbered in ink on the limitations page. Very good to near fine. Number 44 of only 90 copies. "In December, 1821, Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell selected Macquarie Harbour, an inlet of the sea on the western coast of Tasmania, about 200 miles by water from Hobart, as a place of punishment for the worst class of criminals. So dreary was the region, so harsh the conditions of life, and so ferocious the punishments inflicted, that during the first five years of its establishment at least half of the two hundred prisoners confined there attempted to escape. Some perished; some were re-taken; others formed bushranging gangs, the most notorious of which was that led by Matthew Brady, an educated man, who had been transported to New South Wales and then sent to Van Diemen's Land for gross insubordination." - George Mackaness Click here to order $50

86626 Oxley, Deborah Convict Maids - signed The Forced Migration of Women to Australia Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 1996. Octavo; paperback; 339pp., with many monochrome illustrations and diagrams. Minimal wear; mild spotting to upper text block edges; inscribed by the author in ink to the previous owner. Very good to near fine. "Convict Maids" destroys the myth that the female convicts transported from Britain and Ireland to New South Wales between 1826 and 1840 were mainly prostitutes, professional criminals and the 'sweepings of the gaols'. Deborah Oxley argues that in fact these women helped put the colony on its feet. Oxley shows that the women were generally first offenders, transported for minor offences. They were skilled, literate, young and healthy - qualities exploited by the new colony, which needed them both in the labour market and as wives and mothers. This is the first major study to analyse the backgrounds of female convicts against the general labour force. It also compares the legal systems and economies of Britain and Ireland, placing the women's crimes in context. "Convict Maids" draws on historical, economic and feminist theory, and is impressive for its extensive and original research. Click here to order $50

39444 Pascoe, J.J. (ed.) History of Adelaide and Vicinity with a General Sketch of the Province of South Australia and Biographies of Representative Men Hussey & Gillingham, Adelaide SA, 1901. Square folio; hardcover, with upper board title; 691pp. Moderate wear; repaired binding with new endpapers; dark stain to lower corner of initial pages; another water stain to the corner of the final pages with resultant adhesion and subsequent tearing to the edges (not impinging on the text); spotting to the text block edges; some light dusting to the text block top edge; boards moderately worn with marks and a few scrapes. A good, solid copy. Compiled with the intention of producing an authoritative account of the history of South Australia, this book offers an overview of the history of Adelaide and its vicinity as well as containing a biographical section of noteworthy residents. Illustrated with decorations, drawings and photographs, chapters are devoted to the forerunners, architects, founders, builders, citizens, husbandmen, legislators, producers, and the railway builders of the city, as well as covering the jubilee celebrations. The second half of the work is devoted to individual biographies of prominent figures and is accompanied by appendices. Click here to order $200

215713 Phillip, Arthur The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay with an account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson & Norfolk Island Compiled from Authentic Papers, which have been obtained from the several Departments, to which are added, The Journals of Lieuts., Shortland, Watts, Ball & Capt. Marshall, with an Account of their new Discoveries John Stockdale; Piccadilly, 1789. First edition: quarto hardcover; 293 + lxxixpp. + adverts. Rebound; black textured boards with black leather spine and corners, gilt spine titling and decorations with five bands; portrait frontispiece and engraved title page, seven folding engraved charts and 46 monochrome engraved plates (the 55 plates listed on list of illustrations includes title page, frontispiece and charts), of which there are 31 natural history plates. Twenty illustrations without tissue guards. P.122 with the uncorrected mis-numbering 221; early state of the 'Kangooroo' plate at p.106 and 'The Kanguroo' on List of the Plates page; 'Wulpine Opossum' plate at p.50 listed as Vulpine Opossum on List of the Plates; 'Ball Pyramid' at p.177 listed on List of the Plates at p.181; and the 'Black Flying Opossum' is listed at p.297 when it is at p.298. Owner's bookplate on front pastedown; new endpapers; light decreasing stain to lower side edge of initial pages; tiny tear to lower side edge of foxed frontispiece; foxed preliminaries and some further minor spotting; toning and mild darkening to text block edges; five pages extreme upper tips dog-eared; some of folding maps have creased edges and a couple of small tears likely incurred in the collating and binding process. Boards are only mildly scuffed but there are four small white stains on the rear one. Corners and lower spine extremity slightly scraped. Very good copy in a sympathetic binding. Order of contents: Dedication to the Marquis of Salisbury; Anecdotes of Governor Phillip; Errata; Advertisement; Account of the Vignette; Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove near botany Bay; View of the Fleet & Establishments sent out with Governor Phillip to New South Wales; Distribution of the Detachment of Marines for New South Wales, with the Number embarked on board of each of the Transports upon that Service; A List of the Subscribers; List of the Plates; Contents; Appendix and A List of Convicts Sent to New South Wales in 1787; Advertisement. Jonathan Wantrup in 'Australian Rare Books, 1788-1900' writes: " As the title-page makes clear, the book does not publish Governor Phillip's own journal but is a compilation from a number of sources, including Phillip's official reports to the government. These were worked up and given the appropriate literary feel by Stockdale's anonymous editor. This was normal practice at the time." Phillip's writing is like the man himself: honest, direct and unaffected. It is not surprising that the publisher, faced with Phillip's concise and unadorned reports, should have used all his powers to stretch them into as many words as possible to make up the elaborate work he had led his public to expect. The consequence is that Phillip's simple eloquence becomes pomposity under his editor's hand...." Stockdale published the work initially in parts. The first part, which included the engraved title-page, was issued in July 1789 and the last, which included the Dedication leaf dated 25 November 1789 was issued in late November or early December 1789. The full work was then issued in complete volume form." L. Richard Smith's monograph, 'The Sydney Cove Medallion' (Sydney 1978), which Wantrup cites, relates a number of important facts concerning this publication: 1. The engraved title page appears in two states - the earlier state includes the name of the artist Henry Webber on the engraving of the Josiah Wedgwood medallion which appears as a vignette; in the second state Webber's name has been removed at Wedgwood's request. The earliest copies of Phillip will have the legend H. Webber invt, in the lower left border of the vignette (as is the case with the present copy). 2. The vulpine opossum facing page 150 has the word 'wulpine' instead of Vulpine (although Wantrup indicates this error was repeated in the second state). Stockdale issued the volume both with the natural history plates hand-coloured as well as uncoloured (for many years there was no way to distinguish with certainty genuine coloured copies from spurious copies - but it has now been established that in genuine coloured copies the plates are printed on laid paper whereas the ordinary uncoloured version issues the plates on wove paper). Click here to order $9000

12213 Robinson, Portia The Women of Botany Bay A Reinterpretation of the Role of Women in the Origins of Australian Society The Macquarie Library Pty. Ltd., Sydney NSW, 1988. First edition: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 344pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; mildly toned text block and page edges; one or two spots on the endpapers; previous owner's ink inscription. Dustwrapper faded on spine panel (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Very good to near fine. "The Women of Botany Bay" is a history of the European women who came to New South Wales as convicted felons or as the free wives of convicts. It is based on the re-creation of the individual and collective British and Australian lives of every woman convicted in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and transported to New South Wales between 1787 and 1828, and as many of the 'convict wives' as could be traced. The contribution of these women to the development of a distinctive Australian society and their influence on the nature, structure and characteristics of that society, has been ignored, glossed over or distorted. It is the aim of this book to allow these women to speak for themselves after some 200 years of neglect and misrepresentation. It is on the evidence of their own lives, achievements, failures, hopes and despairs, that their influence on both the social and economic development of the colony of New South Wales is reassessed. Click here to order $40

88900 Sidney, Samuel The Three Colonies of Australia New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, their Pastures, Copper Mines & Gold Fields; With Numerous Engravings. Ingram Cooke & Co., London, 1852. Octavo; hardcover, with cloth decorated in blind and gilt spine and upper board titles; 428pp., with an engraved frontispiece and many illustrations likewise, some with tissue guards. Moderate wear; rebound, using much of the original cloth; spine and upper board sunned; top corner of upper board very worn and sunned; bottom edge of frontispiece chipped and torn; text block edges toned; mild toning to some of the illustrations. Very good. The work captures the history of the three colonies up to the initial impetus of gold discoveries, which thereafter transformed Australia. Click here to order $120

94908 Smith, Babette A Cargo of Women Susannah Watson and the convicts of the Princess Royal New South Wales University Press, Sydney, 1988. First edition. Hardcover octavo; blue boards with gilt spine titling and decorated cream endpapers; 254pp. Minor wear only; text block and page edges mildly toned; else near fine and wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Intrigued to discover a convict ancestor in her family tree, Babette Smith decided to investigate her life and the lives of the 99 women who were transported with her on the ship Princess Royal in 1829. Piece by piece she reveals the story of her ancestor the indomitable Susannah Watson who, trapped in the crowded filthy slums of Nottingham, stole because she could not bear to see her children starving. Separated forever from her husband and four children, she was transported to Australia for 14 years. She endured the convict system at its worst, yet emerged triumphant to die in her bed aged 83 singing Rock of Ages. Babette Smith reconstructs the lives of the women from the Princess Royal from fragments of information in shipping lists, official records, newspapers and court transcripts. Her research overturns stereotypes of women convicts as drunken whores and criminals. Caught in an England convulsed by change, they become the unwitting and unwilling pioneers of a new land. Many proved to be resourceful and resilient, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by a new society. First published two decades ago, A Cargo of Women became a bestseller and remains one of the most valuable accounts of convict life in Australia. Click here to order $28

89052 Smith, Babette A Cargo of Women - signed copy Susannah Watson and the convicts of the Princess Royal Sun/Pan Macmillan Publications, Sydney NSW, 1993. Octavo; paperback; 257pp. Wrappers sunned; top joint cracked(but strong); text block and page edges toned; previous owner's ink inscription to the first page; author's inscription in ink to the title page. Good. Click here to order $20

12024 Sprod, Dan The Usurper Jorgen Jorgenson and his turbulent life in Iceland and Van Diemen's Land, 1780 - 1841 Blubber Head Press, Hobart TAS, 2001. First edition: quarto; hardcover; 718pp. with colour and monochrome plates and maps. Dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Fine. Limited edition of 1000 copies. Jorgen Jorgenson was an extraordinarily talented man by any judgment. A Dane by birth, he went to sea at fourteen years of age, and, four years later in 1798, sailed on a whaler to the South Seas. After twenty months at the Cape colony in South Africa, he sailed for Sydney Cove, arriving around the end of 1800. Based in Sydney, he participated as a crew member of the surveying brig HMS "Lady Nelson" in the exploration of Bass Strait and in the establishment of the first white settlements at the Derwent River, Van Diemen's Land and at Port Phillip. After commanding a sealing voyage to New Zealand, he embarked for England on the "Alexander". Returning to his homeland, Jorgenson was obliged by war between Denmark and England to command a privateer "Admiral Juul" and, after a sea battle with HMS "Sappho", he was taken prisoner. Despite this, he joined two trading ventures to Iceland in 1809 during which the events of the Icelandic Revolution took place. His subsequent life was no less adventurous. An intelligent man with a strong literary bent, and despite periods in English gaols, he wrote plays, satires, and works on Tahiti and Denmark, travel, religion, plus voluminous letters to his friend the botanist William Jackson Hooker, who shared his Icelandic experience. In 1817, he travelled to France and Germany as an agent, or spy, for the British Foreign Office. However, compulsive gambling and drinking led to a steady decline and to imprisonment for debt and theft. He was transported to the convict colony of Van Diemen's Land, thus returning him to the settlement he helped to establish 23 years earlier. He remained as a convict, then as a free man, land explorer, police constable, head of roving parties against the Tasmanian Aborigines, newspaper writer and editor, and died there in 1841. "The Usurper" is a documentary history: original documents are presented, linked by a detailed text, the whole being supported by notes, illustrations, maps, bibliographies and an index. Click here to order $45

205079 Swiss, Deborah J. The Tin Ticket The Heroic Journey of Australia's Convict Women Berkley Books, New York NY, 2010. First edition. Hardcover, octavo; quarter bound white papered boards with white spine and gilt spine titling; 333pp., monochrome plates. Mild rubbing to board edges with slightly frayed corners; toned text block edges. Very good in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Convicted of minor crimes, four women - Agnes McMillan, Janet Houston, Bridget Mulligan, and Ludlow Tedder - were exiled to Van Diemen's Land, later known as Tasmania. Tin tickets, stamped with numbers, were hung around the women's necks as they were loaded aboard the ships set to carry them to their new home. Crossing shark-infested waters, some died in shipwrecks during the four-month journey. Others were impregnated against their will by their captors. They arrived as nothing more than property. But as the year passed, they managed not only to endure privation and pain but to thrive on their own terms, breaking the chains of bondage and forging a society that treated women as equals and led the world in fighting for women's rights. The Tin Ticket takes us to the early nineteenth century and into the lives of these extraordinary women, and chronicles how their destinies were touched by the Quaker reformer Elizabeth Gurney Fry. Ultimately, it is the story of women discarded by their homeland and forgotten by history - women who, by sheer force of will, became the heart and soul of a new nation. Click here to order $25

33340 [Sydney Gazette] The Sydney Gazette, And New South Wales Advertiser Volumes IV & V: March 16, 1806 to August 30, 1807 Trustees of the Public Library NSW & Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1968. Hardcover folio, unpaginated. Preliminaries and page edges very lightly spotted; else near fine in dustwrapper lightly worn at edges (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). Click here to order $60

30056 Wells, William Henry A Geographical Dictionary; or, Gazetteer of the Australian Colonies Their Physical and Political Geography, together with a brief notice of all the capitals, principal towns and villages; also of rivers, bays, gulfs, mountains, population and general statistics. Illustrated with numerous maps and drawings. The Council of the Library of New South Wales, Sydney NSW, 1970. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 464pp. [i-viiipp., 1-438pp., 2 blank, 1-16pp. (adverts)], with 2 engraved frontispieces, 23 monochrome maps (1 folding), and 2 engraved plates likewise. Minor wear; previous owner's name in ink; text block edges mildly spotted. Some tiny scrapes and wear to the dustwrapper edges; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Near fine. Publication number 14 of the William Dixson Foundation, this facsimile reproduction of the first published gazetteer of Australia, originally issued in 1848, gives a coherent snapshot of the state of the First Colony at that time. Original copies of this authoritative work, and access to them, are very hard to find, so this edition - provided under the auspices of the Library of New South Wales Council - brings Wells' research into the scope of everybody delving into the conditions of Victorian-era Australia. Click here to order $50

35708 Wentworth, W.C. Statistical, Historical and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land Griffin Press, Adelaide SA, 1978. Facsimile reprint: octavo; hardcover, with gilt upper board and spine titling; 466pp. Minor wear; toned and spotted text block edges. Dustwrapper a little foxed with embrowning along spine panel and edges; small mark on lower panel; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. The politician, landowner and journalist W. C. Wentworth (1790 to 1872), was an energetic and controversial character in the early history of modern Australia. Together with Gregory Blaxland and William Lawson, he was recognised as the first to cross Australia's Blue Mountains. A well-known public figure in the colony of New South Wales, he founded a newspaper called "The Australian" (in 1824) and campaigned, among other things, for a free press; trial by jury; rights for emancipated convicts; public education; and a representative government. He also became extremely wealthy. In this book, first published in 1819, Wentworth argues that the Australian colonies are a better choice than the United States of America for European emigrants. The book contains a vast amount of information about the colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania, together with Wentworth's suggestions for the improvement of their government, and remains an important resource for historians. Click here to order $35

11490 West John (A.G.L. Shaw, ed.) The History of Tasmania With copious information respecting the Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria South Australia &c. Angus and Robertson, Sydney NSW, 1981. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine titling; 699pp., with many black and white plates and a map. Mild wear; fraying to lower board edges and corners; a few spots on endpaper edges; mildly toned and spotted text block edges. Dustwrapper spine panel slightly faded; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good otherwise. Click here to order $35

200051 Yarwood, A.T. Growing Up in the First Fleet - signed Kangaroo Press Pty. Ltd., Kenthurst NSW, 1983. Tall octavo; hardcover, with illustrated boards; 64pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; signed in ink with an inscription to the half-title page; mild offset to the endpapers; offset to the pages either side of the insert. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Laid in: a newspaper article about the book. Click here to order $26