Hesperian Press

Scales of the Serpent. Kimberley Pearlshell in Aboriginal Australia - by Kim Akerman.

A magnificent volume presenting a detailed study of the Aboriginal use of pearl shell in both the traditional and contemporary worlds. This is already a classic. The jaded and faux art of the desert drawings is already rolling over with the freshness and strictly limited availability of pearl shell art.

ISBN 978-0-85905-987-9, (New, 2023), A4, Fully colour illustrated, french flap soft cover, section sewn, 190 pages, 750 grams, $110.00*

The Forgotten Art of Flash Jack Barrymore.
Works on Paper, Painted Pearl Shells and Engraved Boab Nuts, from the first half of the 20th Century. - Kim Akerman with Bruno Jordanoff.

In the first half of the 20th century Flash Jack was a well-known and respected artist who primarily catered for the crews and passengers of steam ships that serviced the coastal towns of Western Australia and sailed north to Singapore.

Working on paper, boab nuts and small pearl shells, Jack created images of Aboriginal life in the Kimberley. Sadly, by the 1970s his name had disappeared from the story of Kimberley indigenous art history. In The Forgotten Art of ‘Flash Jack’ Barrymore, Kim Akerman with Bruno Jordanoff examine Jack’s life and art, bringing together nearly a hundred works of art which had, until recently, been forgotten and place this extraordinary man as a crusader for Aboriginal contemporary art in the Kimberley.

ISBN 978-0-85905-993-0, (New, 2023), A4, Illustrated in colour, french flaps, 86 pages, 390 grams, $52.00*

Did you know the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society has an extensive collection of books for sale from Hesperian Press. If we don't have the book you are looking for we can order it in for you.

Call in and browse today, we are open Monday to Friday 9am until 2pm or by appointment.

Or visit our website www.kalgoorliehistory.org.au



https://kalgoorliehistory.org.au/publications/publication.php?id=146

The Hyland Circus by Peter J. Bridge.

Hyland's Circus was renowned across Australia. Horseman John Roberts married a daughter of Ah Pan and an Irish girl from Capetown, N Queensland.
The many children were trained as horseriders and circus performers. Some became renowned internationally.
Arriving in WA at the turn of the century they performed state-wide. An attraction was that many of the performers were blind from an inherited optical neuropathy passed on maternally.
Settling in Broome, Roberts disappeared on a horse trading trip up the Fitzroy River. Several years later his body was found with a bullet hole in the head.
The reason for his death was a mystery, known to very few, all now dead. All the police files have been destroyed.
Now for the first time in over a century the secret of his death is revealed.

ISBN 978-0-85905-900-8, (New, 2021), A4, 52 pages, heavily illustrated, 175 grams, $30.00*

What the hell was that? A conservation biologist’s journey in Australia & Asia
by Darrell Kitchener.

Raised in a wild Tasmanian timber town, this book traces the authors experiences as a biologist in Tasmania, Western Australia, and Asia. It provides examples of the constant wrestle between conservationists and resource developers in these regions. He spent his last 30 years working on a variety of projects, including conservation of Sumatran Orangutan, Javanese Rhinoceros, national parks, forests and watersheds in a many Indonesian landscapes. He built a heritage hotel beneath a smoking volcano in Java and published on Javanese painters and ancient trade ceramics found beneath the Musi River in Sumatra.

The first part, highlights stories of modern exploration on those islands visited by Alfred Wallace in southern Indonesia at the interface of the Australian and Indomalayan Biogeographic realms, and in the Western Australian Wheatbelt and Kimberley Regions. The second part provides readers insights on the effectiveness of work done by international NGOs in Indonesia and the nature of the enabling environment for expatriate conservationists.

Fire, Foxes, and Feral Cats by Per Christensen

Have you ever wondered why many of our unique fauna have disappeared from Australia in the short time since European colonization? Over the years many theories have been advanced to try to explain this but most ecologists have come now to believe the introduced European Red fox and wild domestic cat, together with changed fire regimes to be the principal causes.

Ecologist Per Christensen was the first scientist to demonstrate this and he was the first to try to develop large scale fauna management techniques using fire and broad scale predator control to carry out re-introduction experiments.

An migrant from Kenya with a background in forestry and a university degree in botany and zoology, Per worked as a research officer in the magnificent southern forests of Western Australia. When green politics and political whim resulted in the amalgamation of forestry, wildlife and National Parks into a new department of Conservation and Land Management Per's work expanded to the arid country.

A serious but at times light hearted account full of interesting characters and amusing situations in which science frequently has to negotiate green politics, political whim, and public opinion. A story of triumphs and failures.

ISBN 978-0-85905-927-5, (New, 2022), A4, 123 pages, illustrations in colour, 510 grams, $40.00

Commandant of Solitude. The Journals of Captain Collet Barker 1828-1831. Edited by John Mulvaney & Neville Green.

After seeing service in the Peninsular War, Canada and Ireland, Captain Collet Barker (1784-1831) was posted to New South Wales, but he spent less than a month in the relative comfort of Sydney Town. He was sent to command the isolated settlement at Raffles Bay (near modern Darwin) for just over a year and was then transferred to King George Sound (Albany), both tiny military detachments on the furthest frontiers of empire.

Prehistorian D. J. Mulvaney and historian Dr Neville Green with E.W.F. (Ted) Street laboriously transcribed Barker's journals, revealing the texture of life in the frontier settlements.

The combined Raffles Bay and King George Sound manuscripts were 586 folio pages of almost indecipherable script. The Raffles Bay folio was deciphered by E.W.F. Street and similarly the 250 King George Sound (Albany) pages by Dr Green that engaged him for 12 years.

Here is Barker's account of his day-to-day problems in the most remote settlements in the continent. He had to deal with difficult officials, unruly soldiers and escaping convicts. He had to try to meet the inflexible demands of the Colonial Office, and at the same time struggle to raise crops and animals in unfamiliar soil and climate. He took an enlightened interest in the Aborigines, who were familiar with European visitors and his journals provide a unique account of the friendly relationships that he achieved with them.

Barker emerges as an excellent administrator, kind-hearted, zealous and firm. His untimely death is movingly recounted in Chapter 1. As solitary in his death as in his Australian commands, Barker at some time penned a sadly percipient epitaph consisting of the first lines of Alexander Pope's Ode on Solitude. The last stanza of this ode reads:

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world and not a stone
Tell where I lye.

On 30th April 1831 Barker was fatally speared in South Australia.

This book details the early years of the military settlements at Raffles Bay and Albany. It is essential for the understanding of both colonial outposts. The publishers gt gt g/father, William Thacker, was present at Albany, courtesy of HMG.

ISBN 978-0-85905-893-3, (1992, R 2021), 240 x 170, illustrated- colour plates, Section sewn, French flap soft cover, 466 pages, 1.2kg, $80.00*

Black Swans Over Java by Ian Duggan.

The story of the Corunna WWII secret air base south of Marble Bar Western Australia, the men that worked there under unbearable conditions to provide fuel, and armaments to American and Australian B.24 Liberator bombers, and the heroic flight crews that flew missions bombing Japanese bases in Java and Bali.

ISBN 978-0-85905-898-8, (New, 2021), A4, 139 pages, heavily illustrated, French flaps, 430grams, $40.00*

NEW RELEASE: "Diary. Walker Brothers Prospecting Expedition 1913."

Edited and annotated by by Jeremy Long and David Nash.

The annals of Australian land exploration include many expeditions remembered for misfortune, inexperience, or poor bushcraft. None of this applies to the eight months in 1913 when Chris Walker (1861–1930) led his brother Arthur and two other men (Crofts and Everett) prospecting by camel from Ryan’s Well (north of Alice Springs) west and southwest to Wiluna. The aim was to investigate ‘unknown country’ between the routes of previous desert explorers. The party proceeded carefully, by scouting ahead for water before moving all the camels and equipment on from a known water source. They had no serious misadventures, and Chris Walker sent his diary and map to Canberra with its negative findings of any ‘mining or pastoral worth’. Their only backers were themselves and the Commonwealth Government, and both apparently had no interest in self-promotion. The report was eclipsed by the Great War (WWI), and although the WA section was serialised in a Perth newspaper in 1934, it has been largely overlooked.

Yet Walker’s competent journal includes numerous geological and natural history observations, and several interesting particular notes relating to Aborigines. Walker’s records are the earliest of what was later called Lake Mackay, well before the 1930 sighting by Mackay’s aerial survey.

The book includes maps, and photographs illustrating the route and the people. There are seven appendices, with biographies of the expedition members, a history of the recognition of Lake Mackay, a summary of the flora mentioned, and three indexes.

ISBN 978-0-85905-727-1, (New, 2022), 165 x 240, casebound, 180 pages, well illustrated in colour, with maps, indexed, 600grams, $90.00*

NEW RELEASE: "Closing in on the Kimberley. 1819-1884."
Exploration of Western Australia’s Kimberley Region and the Adjoining Victoria River District of Northern territory.
Edited by Ned Overton.

A magnificent volume on the early exploration of the Kimberley and NT Victoria River region. Little known expeditions and explorers. Contains the near complete suite of geologist E.T. Hardman’s sketches and watercolours.

This volume documents the interplay between 1819–1884 of exploration of the Kimberley region and adjoining Victoria River District. From early on, expeditions established different settlement patterns between Kimberley’s eastern and western halves.

Main categories of exploration included appraisal of pastoral lands, topographical, hydrographical and geological surveys and prospecting for precious metals. All but prospecting generally yielded detailed reports, commonly in diary format, mostly with maps of varying accuracy, some in colour. These records are compiled here.

One noteworthy feature of this first Kimberley volume – from an era predating printed photographs – is a collection of Edward Hardman’s 1883–84 watercolour and pastel sketches, many of them full-page, together with the copied etchings. Another highlight is a full translation of the shorthand diary of John Pentecost, ‘Stumpy’ Durack’s 1882 expedition navigator.

All the precursors of Western Australia’s first gold rush are documented; the rush was about to begin.

ISBN 978-0-85905-950-3, (New, 2022), 165 x 240, casebound, 730 pages, heavily illustrated, with maps. Fully indexed, 2kg, $220.00*
See hesperianpress.com for more details on how to order.

"On the Swan."
A History of the Swan District, Western Australia
By Michael J. Bourke.

One of the best local histories published in WA and a beautiful book. A new edition with some upgrading. Essential reading.

ISBN 978-0-85905-893-3. (1987,R, 2021), 180 x 245, French flaps, Section sewn, heavily illustrated B&W & colour, 385 pages, 1.2kg, $75.00*

NEW RELEASE: "This Fearful Plague."
Bubonic Plague in Western Australia. 1900 to 1906.
By Michelle McKeough.

“Bubonic plague: the very words chill the soul with ancient fears. But who would have thought that an historic examination of its effect on a small Australian community would be so fascinating and relevant today?”
- Robert Drewe

ISBN 978-0-85905-959-6, (New, 2022), 160 x 240, 124 pages, well illustrated, 220 grams, $35.00*
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NEW RELEASE: "The Round House 1831-1856"
The early years of Western Australia’s oldest building – and how it survived.
By Steve Errington.

Fremantle Gaol, better known as the Round House, was built in 1830, was nearly demolished in 1922 but one hundred years later survives as an iconic Fremantle building and a popular tourist attraction.

Dr Steve Errington, one of its volunteer guides and himself a past president of the Royal WA Historical Society, has now completed a three-year investigation of its construction and a detailed study of the 2400+ individual inmates responsible for 3600+ incarcerations. The former relied on two key documents held by the State Records Office, the second revealed an unexpected range of inmates, some of whom were not actually prisoners.

It confirmed a world of universal hard labour, severe punishments for small offences but few deaths in custody.

Although not built with WA’s original inhabitants in mind, before it was abolished as a gaol in 1856 it housed 400+ Aboriginals, generally for short terms. These numbers would have been higher but for the er****on in 1848 of a ‘Native Prison’ in St Georges Terrace, Perth – one of many surprising revelations of the study.

The final chapter – the longest – combines an investigation of the post-1856 uses of the building with a report of the struggle for its survival and recognition of key players in the battle.

The book is generously illustrated in colour and is thoroughly referenced and indexed.

ISBN 978-0-85905-945-9, (New, 2022), 165 x 240, 144 pages, French flaps cover, well illustrated colour, indexed, 380 grams, $35.00.
See hesperianpress.com for more details on how to order.

NEW RELEASE: The long awaited volume completing the explorations of the southern portions of the state:
"Western Australian Exploration 1846-1860"
Edited by Sheryl Milentis.

The third and largest companion volume to Western Australian Exploration Volume 1 1826–1835 and Volume 2 1836­­–1845. Volume 3 has been dedicated to the Gregory brothers who undertook many of the expeditions between Albany and Champion Bay and were instrumental in opening up the Murchison to agriculture.

Each expedition has a synopsis including participants, departure and finish dates and places, an outline of the route, a summary of the journey, topographical map references and the archival sources reproduced from original reports, letters and diaries with extensive maps and images.

Includes earlier land explorations by Menzies (1791) and Flinders (1802)

Short biographical notes on the participants and footnotes. Appendices for botany and zoology with notes on fishes. A brief history on the military influences in Shark Bay. Sailing directions for Shark Bay and a detailed account of the spearing of Governor Fitzgerald.

A comprehensive index of people, places, ships with a selected general index.

ISBN 978-0-85905-888-9, (New, 2022), 165 x 240, Casebound, 648 pages, well illustrated, with maps, fully indexed, 1.7 kg, $170.00*

NEW RELEASE: "The Ship’s Parrot"
By Kent Stewart.

Kent Stewart first set foot in a ship’s engine room at the age of four. At the age of 12 he had his first trip to sea on a sixty-miler. It seemed inevitable that he would eventually go to sea as a ship’s engineer. He grew up on an engineering works, served his fitting and turning apprenticeship at a dockyard, went to sea as an engineer and finally established a marine engineering consultancy. He has spent his whole working life in the maritime industry. He has tug master’s certificates in NSW and Queensland and laughingly tells his deck acquaintances that he has two masters certificates.

Needless to say, he has a world of experience in marine matters but more importantly he remembers most of it. Where he can’t remember it, he can spin a yarn that has an element of truth to it. This collection of articles was published by Baird Publications in their Workboat World/Ausmarine magazines over a number of years. They have been chosen for their entertainment value and as a friend once said “you have to write them down”, no-one would believe you.

Direct from author. Be quick. A small run.

[email protected]

ISBN 978-0-85905-949-7, (New, 2022), B5, 101 pages, full colour illustrated, 290 grams, $40.00*

NEW RELEASE: "Recollections From The Coast – Remember Old North Beach, Trigg, Watermans Bay and Marmion."

By Chris Holyday.

Chris Holyday has completed a follow up book to Between Beach and Bush. Contains all new content and never seen before photos and stories supplied by pioneer families of the north coast. The Hamersleys, the Watermans, the Mettams, the Newlands, the Riley family and others have opened up their family albums to tell their stories.

The many changes we have seen, in over 300 priceless photos over 23 chapters and 140 pages, are in this new book, along with early houses and shops histories, fishing shacks history and early Scarborough/Trigg surfing history from the 1950s.

ISBN 978-0-85905-956-5, (New, 2022), A4, 148 pages, heavily illustrated, 620 grams, $40.00

See hesperianpress.com for more details on how to order.