A&R Classics

A powerful novel about race that's become a classic of Australian literature. A tough, uncompromising novel about the difficult love between a white man and a black woman. Coonardoo is the moving story of a young Aboriginal woman trained from childhood to be the housekeeper at Wytaliba station and, as such, destined to look after its owner, Hugh Watt. the love between Coonardoo and Hugh, which so shocked its readers when the book was first published in 1929, is never acknowledged and so, degraded and twisted in on itself, destroys not only Coonardoo, but also a community which was once peaceful. This frank and daring novel set on the edge of the desert still raises difficult questions about the history of contact between black and white, and its representation in Australian writing.

Kevin Gilbert's powerful expose of past and present race relations in Australia is an alarming story of land theft, attempted racial extermination, oppression, denial of human rights, slavery, ridicule, denigration, inequality and paternalism. First published in 1973, Gilbert's controversial account of Aboriginal affairs paints a disturbing image of the impact of the colonisation of Australia and the ongoing problems faced by the Aboriginal people. the book poses a solution directly addressing what Indigenous people really want: land, compensation, discreet non-dictatorial help and, most of all, to be left alone by white Australia. Gilbert's vivid, personal and widely shared experiences of race relations in Australia formed the basis of his long and enduring struggle for Aboriginal rights up until his death in 1993. Written with the hopes to provoke a galvanisation of his People, Gilbert brings together the voices and memories of various Aborigines. Demonstrating his vision for justice and equality, Gilbert's arguments are still immensely significant and relevant to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians today. 'this book is one of the best political books on land rights ever written... Read [his words] and find an original and Aboriginal thinker who wrote from the heartlands of the Australian spirit' - Mudrooroo

A stunning collection from one of Australia's favorite poets. Readers have long embraced the passionate energy of Henry Lawson's poems. this collection of 177 poems showcases the very best of Lawson, heart-rendering tales of the human condition, rousing poems of social protest, images of comic characters, and classic portraits such as Middleton's rouseabout, as well as some of Lawson's lesser-known works, including the poignant verse addressed to his lost love, Hannah Thornburn. Henry Lawson was a man burdened by poverty and deafness and haunted by the specters of alcoholism and madness. Against his tortured life, the spirit, humor and understanding evident in this collection show the breadth of Lawson's achievement and demonstrate why he has endured as one of Australia's great poets. Poems listed in chronological order, with title and first line indices.

This engrossing story by famous Australian author Ion Idriess is an inspiring tribute to the remarkable life of Sir Sidney Kidman, the Cattle King. At the age of 13, Sidney Kidman ran away from home with only five shillings in his pocket. He went on to become a horse dealer, drover, cattle buyer and bush jockey and he also ran a coach business. Above all, Kidman created a mighty cattle empire of more than a hundred stations, fighting droughts, bushfires, floods and plagues of vermin to do so. His enterprise and courage won him a huge fortune and made him a legend.

The definitive collection of work from one of Australia's preeminent twentieth century poets, Kenneth Slessor, drawing from his acclaimed books, Earth Visitors (1926), Cuckooz Contrey (1932) and Five Bells (1939). This selection was first published as One Hundred Poems in 1944 (with the addition of three further poems in 1957), and includes an introduction by Dennis Haskell and an Author's Note. From his historical series, 'Five Visions of Captain Cook', to his memorial to the loss of a friend, the iconic 'Five Bells', and from the tragic landscape of El Alamein, influenced by his stint as a war correspondent and made famous in 'Beach Burial', to the meditation 'Out of time', Slessor's poetry continues to dazzle contemporary audiences.

Romance, passion, lusty adventure...the story of Matthew Flinders navigator, explorer and lover. When Matthew Flinders, the first man, to chart and circumnavigate Australia, set sail from England in July 1801, he left behind the intrigues of his homeland but also his young bride of only a few weeks, Ann Chappell. He didn't see her again for more than nine years. During that time, he carried out incredible feats of seamanship and navigation, made the first charts of much of the coastline of Australia, and was shipwrecked and later held prisoner by the French on Mauritius. Meticulously researched and written with great insight and sensitivity, My Love Must Wait is both a tender portrayal of faithful devotion, and a stirring re-creation of the courage and endurance of one of history's greatest seamen.

Passionate, headstrong and imaginative, Sybylla Melvyn is one of the most endearing heroines of Australian literature. 'I am given to something which a man never pardons in a woman. You will draw away as though I were a snake when you hear.' With this warning, Sybylla confesses to her rich and handsome suitor that she is given to writing stories and bound, therefore on a brilliant career. In this ironically titled and riotous first novel by Miles Franklin, originally published in 1901, Sybylla tells the story of growing up passionate and rebellious in rural NSW, where the most that girls could hope for was to marry or to teach. Sybylla will do neither, but that doesn't stop her from falling in love, and it doesn't make the choices any easier. Included in this edition is the sequel, My Career Goes Bung, which sees Sybylla amongst the literati in Sydney.

An outstanding literary achievement, meticulously researched and deeply felt, this portrait of the earliest days of the European settlement of Australia remains unrivalled. The year 1788: the very beginning of European settlement. These were times of hardship, cruelty and danger. Above all, they were times of conflict between the Aborigines and the white settlers. Eleanor Dark brings alive those bitter years with moments of tenderness and conciliation amid the brutality and hostility. The cast of characters includes figures historical and fictional, black and white, convict and settler. All the while, beneath the veneer of British civilization, lies the baffling presence of Australia, the 'timeless land’. The Storm of time and No Barrier complete the timeless Land trilogy.