Non-fiction

The Canary Jacket – Ann Shead – First Edition 1968

First edition published by Collins, London and Sydney in 1968. A “novel of early Australia” by the distinguished author.

Octavo, 256 pages, a very good copy in a complete and clean dust jacket.

Australian author Ann Shead came from Cornish stock. This story start in Cornwall and smuggling which leads to transportation to New South Wales. The realities of life downunder for convicts bound out to serve a Master are to the fore of the narrative. Things do improve and the book ends pleasantly high and rewarding.

Convicts doing it tough but seeing it through in the end … the lucky ones in the Lucky Country.

$30.00

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Discovery – Stories of Modern Mineral Exploration – Alan Trengove

A fine copy of the first edition published by Stockwell Press in 1979.

Octavo, 278 pages, illustrated from photographs and numerous maps of mineral areas.

Starts with the “Forgotten Frontier” … Cape York and the Weipa area. Then the Bowen expanses, Pilbara before the arrival of the super mines, Gold and the advent of the offshore drilling ships. Closes with an appendix “A History of Resources of Metallic Ores” by King. Well its all a history really.

What is now a super background to the history of mineral exploration in Australia.

$30.00

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The Wreck of the Amsterdam – Peter Marsden – First Edition 1974

The Dutch East Indiaman set out on her maiden voyage in 1748 loaded with cargo and silve7r, with three hundred people on board.

A storm in the English Channel forced the captain to beach her near Hastings after a near mutiny.

She’s still there and at the occasional low tide remnants can be seen from the shore. Peter Marsden was the Field archaeologist at the London Guildhall Museum and he was called in when a party of workmen with access to a digger tried their luck and found something rather special.

First edition published by Hutchinson, London in 1974. Octavo, 288 pages, heavily and well illustrated. A very good copy.

The Wreck of the Amsterdam; a long time afterwards fresh discoveries are made.

$30.00

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Smelling the Breezes – A Journey Through the High Lebanon – R and M Izzard

Published by the Travel Book Club, a Foyles invention in conjunction with Hodder, London in 1959. A first edition.

Octavo, 253 pages with a few illustrations from photographs. A very good clean copy.

The authors, the Izzards were an adventurous lot, tramping 300 miles through the high country behind and down from the Lebanon. A really interesting account of an area rarely tackled with such attention to detail and respect for the people, environment, history etc.

The Lebanon and up at the back in the High Country.

$25.00

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Port Arthur Railway Across Tasman Peninsula – Australia’s First Railway – Bayley

Published in the early 1970’s this is an interesting historical account of what was the first railway in Australia, albeit convict powered.

The author William Bayley self published a number of well researched historical documents. Octavo, 64 pages, illustrated heavily and well throughout. Fine copy.

Much about Booth and his plans, the Port Arthur settlement and discovery of coal on the other side of the peninsula. The need for the railway, its construction and the manpower. The visit of Trollope and other incidentals.

The first railway – no mean feat for anyone.

$25.00

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The Shot Tower [Hobart] and its Builder Joseph Moir – Richard Lord

A special local history item by Richard Lord who also authored the respected book on St David’s graveyard and the Isle of the Dead at Port Arthur.

More than a local history is the shot tower is the only stone and brick built circular shot tower in the Southern hemisphere.

Anyone coming to Hobart may not have a visit here on the agenda … after reading this thorough account I doubt you will neglect the tower.

First Printing 1980, self published, printed by Specialty Press, Hobart. Perfect bound, ninety-one pages, nicely illustrated mainly from historical photographs.

The builder of the shot tower Joseph Moir was an incredibly enterprising individual. Already successful in business. He went to England and came back with a shipload of hardware and set up the Economy House at 49 Murray Street. It did very well.

In the 1860’s his mind turned to making shot … a quite complex process fundamental to which is the action of gravity hence the tower. His careful planning led him to select the perfect site some seven miles form the centre of Hobart. The author goes through the considerations regarding the location, the structure, the outhouses for arsenic, powder etc and the incredible feat in erecting the tower in eight months with the help of only two stonemasons. The process for making shot was designed by William watts of Bristol in the 1700’s. A bit of experimentation was required at Hobart, but Moir eventually cracked the technique … which he guarded for year to come.

The Shot Tower – Tasmania’s finest industrial structure.

$25.00

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The Canary Jacket – Ann Shead – First Edition 1968

Discovery – Stories of Modern Mineral Exploration – Alan Trengove

The Wreck of the Amsterdam – Peter Marsden – First Edition 1974

Smelling the Breezes – A Journey Through the High Lebanon – R and M Izzard

Port Arthur Railway Across Tasman Peninsula – Australia’s First Railway – Bayley

The Shot Tower [Hobart] and its Builder Joseph Moir – Richard Lord

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