Category: History
Lust, science, adventure - Joseph Banks and his voyages of discovery - the extraordinary life of one of the world's most famous and notorious adventurers. Sir Joseph Banks was a man of passion whose influence spanned the globe. A fearless adventurer, his fascination with beautiful women was only ...Show more
Category: History
In 1851, Ballarat was a tranquil and beautiful valley. By 1855, it had become the thriving centre of the world's largest alluvial goldfield. But how did such a feat occur when at the beginning, diggers had little or no knowledge of where to look for gold or how to extract it from the gravel and quartz?F ...Show more
Category: History
Members of the Australian Mining Corps were commonly known as 'tunnellers'. They worked continuously in wet and muddy conditions, under constant enemy threat in often narrow tunnels, under no man's land.The Ballarat Electorate has enjoyed a long history connected with mining and many men with mining exp ...Show more
Category: History
In 1856, at the height of the alluvial goldrush, Ballarat produced 823,334 ounces of gold. By 1878 the figure was a mere 12,984 ounces. Ballarat was 'on its last legs.' However, in the Black Hill, Llanberris, Temperance and Imperial mines, miners had developed efficient ways to find and extract gold fro ...Show more
Category: History
ABC broadcaster and bestselling author of Ghost Empire and Saga Land, Richard Fidler is back with a personally curated history of the magical city that is Prague. In 1989, Richard Fidler was living in London as part of the provocative Australian comedy trio The Doug Anthony All Stars ...Show more
Category: History
What role did the queen play in the governor-general Sir John Kerr's plans to dismiss prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, which unleashed one of the most divisive episodes in Australia's political history? And why weren't we told? Under the cover of being designated as private correspondence, the lett ...Show more
Category: History
Charismatic, intelligent and handsome, George Scott is unlike any other bushranger. Born into a privileged life in famine-wracked Ireland, Scott's family loses its fortune and is forced to flee to New Zealand. There, Scott joins the local militia and fights as a soldier against the Maori in the brutal N ...Show more
Category: History
'It was the men who first went below the blue rock who made the reputation of Ballarat.''We have shallow sinking, deep sinking, ground sluicing and quartz mining, and we had to learn everything. All this has been taught us by the pick and shovel of the miner. There have been none to help us, and the kno ...Show more
Category: History
There's a lot of aeroplanes and aviators down in that water. Thank God I'm not one of them.From pioneering and outback flights to delivering Spitfires or tackling the jungles of New Guinea, Australian Women Pilots tells of ten Australians with extraordinary stories.Women have been flying since ...Show more
Category: History
No symbol better conveys the intrepid spirit of Australia than the flying kangaroo. Whether it's glimpsed on a red-eye flight to an interstate business meeting, before leaving for adventure or holidays, or when longing to return home, that sweep of red defines air travel in Australia. Qantas has always ...Show more
Category: History
Bugger, rooted, bloody oath...What is it about Australians and swearing? We've got an international reputation for using bad language (Where the bloody hell are ya?) and letting rip with a choice swear word or two has long been a very Aussie thing to do. From the defiant curses of the convicts and bullo ...Show more
Category: History
The Windsor Diaries are the never-before-seen diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard, who lived alongside the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor Castle during the Second World War. Alathea's home life was an unhappy one. Her parents had separated and so during the war she was sent to live wi ...Show more
