Australiana

Sailing with Flinders: The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith – Peter Monteath (Hardback version one of 200 Copies)

First edition, readily available as a softcover but rare as a hardback due to the tight limitation. Numbered 154 of 200 copies thus.

Published by the super Corkwood Press, Adelaide in 2002. Professor Peter Monteath [descendant of Gidley King] of Adelaide University a well published historian. This book marries well with his “Encountering Terra Australis” of which Voyager usually has a copy.

Fine condition, xiv, 86 pages, maps in text numerous other illustrations, notes and bibliography.

Monteath edits the extant journal and provided his sizeable introduction. Apart from Flinders writings this is the only journal kept during the Voyage of the Investigator 1801-1803 during which Flinders circumnavigated Australia proving undisputedly its island form and filling in many parts of the then “Unknown Coast”. The writer of the journal [It was more like an exercise book] , Samuel Smith, was from Manchester and joined Flinders’ crew below decks as low a rank as could be got. Nevertheless, Flinders had a small tightly bound crew and Smith’s account makes for good and full reading.

An important historical account one of the tightly held hardbacks.

$80.00

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Van Diemen’s Land [History of Tasmania to 1838] – James Boyce

A new edition of James Boyce’s super book on Tasmania. Published in 2018, with a Forward by Richard Flanagan.

Octavo, 388 pages, with maps, plates, notes and references. very good condition. The winner of a number of prestigious awards.

Van Diemen’s Land a Colony formed out of transportation of convicts. How they survived and settled and adapted to the land. Conflicts with establishment and bushrangers. The fate of the aboriginal community.

James Boyce’s thoughtful perspective of the early years and the impact of colonialism

$40.00

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Theodore Thomson Flynn – Not Just Errol’s Father – Tony and Viki Harrison.

A scare book likely because of its effectively self published nature.

Octavo, soft cover, perfect bound, 238 pages, illustrated, a pretty good production and a nice copy. Published at Hobart in 2013.

Local know of the early years of Hollywood legend, adventurer, boozer and womanizer Errol Flynn. The hospital where he was born is just around the corner from chez Voyager.

The Harrison’s have produced this thorough, well researched book on Errol Flynn’s father. Theodore was Professor at the University of Tasmania by the age of 28 and became a leading authority on marsupials. He moved to Northern Ireland and held similar academic positions, also receiving an MBE for WWII efforts. Later he managed Errol’s estates in Jamaica and held academic positions at the University of California.

Errol Flynn’s Father – a story of his Own.

$30.00

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Triumph in the Tropics (Queensland) – Cilento and Lack – 1959

This substantial book was produced for the Centenary Celebrations of Queensland published 1959 effectively by the Historical Committee of the State Government. It is free from government style and influence and jam packed with facts in a naturally chronological order.

Thick octavo, 446 pages plus index. Illustrated throughout, including charts, coloured frontispiece of the Cooktown Orchid (quite beautiful but we find a slightly strange choice). Facsimile signatures on endpapers and a pretty good example of the decorative period dust jacket. Very clean.

Starts with very early explorers (the reference to first nation people comes later) .. Cook, Flinders, Oxley, Convict establishments, foray into the interior, self Government. Then the development of the “Modern Queensland” … pastoral, maritime and mining (more about Mount Morgan).

It is the depth of information that impresses us most about this book, whilst the content concerning aboriginal people would not meet today’s standards, it is hard to find a book anywhere that addresses progress in Queensland better than this account. Not surprising given the authors [note their humble reference to mere editors] Cilento and Lack.

A Triumph it is … Queensland!

$50.00

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Richard Siddins of Port Jackson [Australian Maritime History] – Lyndon Rose.

Published by Roebuck in 1984 a nice production, larger format, 152 pages, Illustrated, end paper maps. A very good copy.

Richard Siddins was a merchant sea captain who sailed out of Port Jackson from 1804 to 1822. He operated sealing expeditions to the Antarctic Oceans; gathered sandalwood; carried cargo to India and China. Within all this he experienced more adventure seeking gold from a wrecked privateer; taking care at a cannibal feast; chased by Tongan war canoes; wrecked off Macquarie Island … it was all in a day’s work for Captain Siddins.

Hinted above amongst all this was an important early voyage to the South Shetland Islands.

Early Australian Maritime History.

$35.00

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Historic Stanley [North West Tasmania] – From Original Sketches by Marquerite Close – Signed by the author and artist.

Well for those that have not been there, Stanley with its impossible to miss “Nut” is one of the most picturesque places you are likely to come across. And, steeped in history being a very early settlement associated with Australia’s first major corporation the Van Diemen’s Land Co.

Soft cover, landscape, 68 pages with a page of narrative followed by a sketch throughout. A super reference and keepsake for any Stanley lover.

Beautiful historic Stanley and Artist’s record.

$30.00

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Sailing with Flinders: The Journal of Seaman Samuel Smith – Peter Monteath (Hardback version one of 200 Copies)

Van Diemen’s Land [History of Tasmania to 1838] – James Boyce

Theodore Thomson Flynn – Not Just Errol’s Father – Tony and Viki Harrison.

Triumph in the Tropics (Queensland) – Cilento and Lack – 1959

Richard Siddins of Port Jackson [Australian Maritime History] – Lyndon Rose.

Historic Stanley [North West Tasmania] – From Original Sketches by Marquerite Close – Signed by the author and artist.

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