Australiana

The Invention of Terra Nullius – Historical and Legal Fictions on the Foundation of Australia. – Michael Connor

Hobart author Michael Connor has a varied career including teaching in North Africa and management at the famous Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Then he decided to broaden his education in Colonial History at James Cook University and then a PhD in Colonial History at the University of Tasmania.

Published by Macleay Press Sydney in 2005. Octavo, 361 pages, a super fine copy. Very hard to find must have had a very small print run.

This book explores the concept of Terra Nullius “Land belonging to no-one” a principal applied not only in Australia but in many parts of the World subject to colonisation. This is not intended, we believe, to be a provoking works … its sets out the facts and issues comprehensively and there are clues to its direction from the first paragraph.

A special book about an important and now in our faces subject. Worth reading with an open and inquisitive mind.

The defining principal [or was it] now struggling to get support albeit rather late

$60.00

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William Dampier in New Holland – Alex S. George

The subtitle to this book now not socially acceptable but excuse it for its emphasis.

A very nice book and the subject, William Dampier, could not be more interesting … confidante of Jonathan Swift and stimulator of Gulliver and his Travels.

Here we have Dampier in and around the coast of Australia.

Published by Bloomings Books in 1999. Tall octavo, 171 pages, rich dark end papers and beautifully illustrated with images of the wonderful drawings from Dampier’s journals juxtaposed with modern colour photographs of similar subjects. Super fine condition.

A super production and a must for any Dampierite.

$40.00

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Inscriptions in Stone – St David’s Burial Ground (Hobart) 1804-1872 – Compiled by Richard Lord

First edition 1976. Number 215 of 1000 copies.

Published by St David’s Battery Point in 1976. Small octavo, 210 pages, frontispiece of Robert Knopwood astride his horse with dog. Very good copy.

A unique record of early Hobart town from the headstones of the first cemetery. Many that have visited Hobart have spent time reading the gravestones at St David’s. It is impossible not to come away with a sense of perspective on both old and modern life.

Sadness and triumph reflected in stone and here recorded in greater depth with through research (four years in the making).

There is nothing morbid about this book it is in fact a celebration of the first European’s to grace Tasmanian shores.

Graveyard delight (well it’s a special one) from Hobart.

$60.00

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G.T.W.B. Boyes – Diaries and Letters (Vol 1 1820-1832) – edited by Peter Chapman

A very solid and sought after book. Published by the Melbourne University Press in 1985. Stand alone volume we cannot find anywhere Chapman producing a Vol 2.

A substantial work. Thick octavo, 687 pages, endpaper maps, illustrations from period artwork. Another super fine copy.

George Boyes was a veteran of the Peninsula War – he became auditor of Van Diemens Land in 1826 – the depth of his letters is remarkable and we see those early years through his words with immense clarity – his talents as an artist were superb with much of his work reproduced here

Boyes left a superb legacy

$90.00

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Hyacinthe de Bougainville’s Account of Port Jackson 1825 – The Governor’s Noble Guest – Marc Serge Riviere

Another beautiful production of the Miegunyah Press. Published in 1999, large octavo, 291 pages, nicely illustrated, super fine copy.

Baron Hyacinthe the son of the explorer Bougainville commanded an expedition in 1825 to Macau, Manilla and New South Wales in the Thetis and Esperance. This is a translation of his private diaries. He met Governor Brisbane and many explorer and notables … Hume, Blaxland, Oxley, Macarthur, Marsden and Piper.

It contains a bit of an expose as a result.

Hyacinthe had influence and knew people

$50.00

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First Visitors to Bass Strait – J. S. Cumpston

A Roebuck (After Dampier) Society publication of 1973.

Small quarto, 103 pages, end paper maps, illustrated nicely. A very good copy.

Cumpston’s well researched account of the opening up of the Bass Strait.

Two parts – The Furneaux Group which starts quite naturally with Captain Furneaux in the Adventure on his own away from Cook for a while. Part two about King Island with Robert Campbell and John Palmer before Flinders and his thorough approach. And then the French and the fright they put into Governor King and the various hoisting of flags that followed.

Bass Strait from all directions

$50.00

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The Invention of Terra Nullius – Historical and Legal Fictions on the Foundation of Australia. – Michael Connor

William Dampier in New Holland – Alex S. George

Inscriptions in Stone – St David’s Burial Ground (Hobart) 1804-1872 – Compiled by Richard Lord

G.T.W.B. Boyes – Diaries and Letters (Vol 1 1820-1832) – edited by Peter Chapman

Hyacinthe de Bougainville’s Account of Port Jackson 1825 – The Governor’s Noble Guest – Marc Serge Riviere

First Visitors to Bass Strait – J. S. Cumpston

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