King of the Australian Coast by Marsden Hordern

Phillip Parker King is perhaps one of Australia's greatest yet largely unsung early maritime surveyors. Hordern relives King's series of gruelling voyages between 1817 and 1822 - from the maritime hazards of the reefs, shoals, tides and unpredictable weather to the unfamiliar wildlife and Aboriginal presence he encountered along the way.

The Russians at Port Jackson 1814-1822 by Glynn Barratt

This book offers readers the fist English translations of the "Sydney sections" of eyewitness accounts by nine Russians who came to Australia with the ships Suvorov (1814), Blagonamerennyy, Otkrytiye, Vostok and Mirnyi (1820), and Appolon (1822) and now housed in museums in the USSR.

A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts

He was known simply as the "Blind Traveller", a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon and helped chart the Australian outback [in 1831].

The Governor's Noble Guest translated and edited by Marc Serge Riviere

This book is a translation of the private diaries kept by Hyacinthe de Bougainville during his stay in New South Wales in 1825. It was at his initiative that the monument to his hero, La Pérouse, was erected on the shores of Botany Bay. The Baron's visit in 1825 was not his first visit. In 1802 he was part of the Baudin expedition visiting Port Jackson, as a midshipman first class, in the Géographe. Feigning illness, he was repatriated back to France on the Naturaliste under the command of Louis-Claude de Freycinet.

Allan Cunningham, Australian Collecting Localities by Suzanne Curry, Bruce Maslin, John Maslin

Allan Cunningham was one of Australia's foremost botanist explorers. During his 17 years in Australia, he was responsible for collecting more than 3000 specimens of plants and exploring much of eastern New South Wales and southern Queensland. The focus of this publication is to provide precise locality information for the numerous localities visited by Allan Cunningham between December 1817 and April 1822.

Allan Cunningham, Botanist and Explorer by WG McMinn

Allan Cunningham was perhaps, with the exception of Robert Brown, the most accomplished of the botanists sent out from Kew Gardens during the golden age when Sir Joseph Banks was director. He also explored much of south-eastern Australia in the years 1817 to 1828.

Joseph Lycett, Governor Macquarie's Convict Artist by John Turner

This well-written and thoroughly researched biography of a talented but flawed character tells the story of Australia's most successful, unsuccessful convict artist. Short of money in 1809 Joseph Lycett, an engraver, made some beautiful copies of The Bank of England's five pound notes so that he could live the life of the gentry. Lucky to avoid hanging, he was transported to Sydney in 1814 and in no time at all he flooded the town with excellent copies of five shilling notes.

King Bungaree by Keith Vincent Smith

Anyone who has worked in the field of early Australian race relations makes the acquaintance of Bungaree, whether as an example of significant collaboration between white and black in many different ways ranging from maritime exploration to the recapturing of escapees, or as a case study exhibiting the essential tragedy of Aboriginal history post contact. This book reveals the unexpectedly wide dimensions of this one Aboriginal life.

The Search for the Inland Sea, John Oxley Explorer by Richard Johnson

John Oxley Surveyor-General of New South Wales ranks among the great explorers of Australia. His expeditions along the Lachlan and Macquarie Rivers were feats of dogged endurance and persistence, as he pursued his dream of finding the mysterious 'inland sea' that he firmly believed lay in the Australian interior. This is the first biography of an important figure in Australian colonial history. The Search for the Inland Sea fills a major gap in our historical literature.

Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment by John Gascoigne

This book places the work of Joseph Banks in the context of the Enlightenment. It aims at a better understanding of Banks himself as well as seeking to provide an analysis of some of the major scientific and cultural preoccupations of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century British society.

Early Explorers in Australia from the log books and journals
by Ida Lee

This book deals with certain inland discoveries from the time of the landing of Governor Phillip in New South Wales until Allan Cunningham, the King's Botanical Collector, had begun his exploration of Queensland. These include the expeditions of Caley, Evans, and all those who struck out westward across the Blue Mountains, and dealt with as constituting a prelude to Cunningham's journal, in order to show in whose footsteps Cunningham followed and to indicate the extent of the colony at the time of his arrival there.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, A History 1816-1985 by Lionel Gilbert

Dr Gilbert has written a history of the Gardens which leads the reader along the paths of administrative wrangles, into the hothouses of professional jealousies and reveals vistas of backbreaking labour and devotion. With and eye for the incongruous and the ability to season his story with a good anecdote, his delightful dry humour makes this an entertaining history of human fallibilities and stubbornness as much as that of the planning and nurturing of a now famous institution - The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney.

A Year At Kew by Rupert Smith

A Year At Kew is a revealing month-by-month journey, through Kew Botanic Garden in London, following the work of the multitude of dedicated gardeners, visionary scientists, enthusiastic botanists and talented landscape architects who work hard to maintain the unrivalled collections and their environments for future generations.

Foundations of Identity, Building Early Sydney 1788-1822 by Peter Bridges

"Peter Bridges accompanies us through the streets of Sydney. Years fall away, solid forms dissolve, and people we have never met appear in everyday scenes . . . His experience, knowledge, and wry humour invite us to see what he sees, the traces of the past which still direct our steps and catch our gaze." Source: quote from Lenore Coltheart on the back cover of the book.

The Mermaid Tree by Robert Tiley

"Almost two hundred years ago a young British sailor carved his ship's name, Mermaid, on a Kimberley coast boab tree - it is still there today, probably Australia's oldest living graffiti. It also marked the beginning of an extraordinary period of optimism and adventure in Australia's history."

An Irresistible Temptation by Carol Baxter

"In 1829 at the Supreme Court in Sydney, the bewitching Jane New was sentenced to death. Her crime: shoplifting a bolt of printed French silk. But was she guilty? Many had their doubts."

Most Perfectly Safe by Granville Allen Mawer

"If you had to sail to Australia in the early nineteen century there were worse ways to travel than being transported as a convict. Your living conditions were better than those of the sailors who manned your ship. Discipline was harsher for the troops who guarded you. And, disease and mutiny apart, it was as the Admiralty claimed, 'most perfectly safe'. Until 1833. . ."

More books by Granville Allen Mawer . . .