White colonials, mostly public servants called 'silvertails', were running the place in the latter years of the nineteenth century. Then white labourers and wharfies arrived from down south to build Darwin's railway and meatworks, carve out the roads and construct and man the jetty but these blue-collar workers had to be content with sitting one rung down on the social ladder. The Chinese community, present in greater numbers than the whites, provided both skilled and unskilled labour and ...

Matt, Ben and Nicky have grown up together in the small town of Coolongawong. Now they are about to start 5th class with the school's most popular teacher, Mr Mac. On the first day of school a new girl joins their class. Kris can't forgive her mother for bringing her to this small town out the back of woop-woop and is determined to hate her new school. But all that is quickly forgotten when, together with her three new friends, they discover that Mr Mac's classroom is a magical one and the...

Adam, recently widowed and suffering from melancholia, sets out on an overland journey from Sydney in 1847 with his two young sons. Still grieving on his arrival in Melbourne, he leaves the boys in the care of friends and embarks on a further quest to mend his heart.Finally returning to Melbourne, he begins working for Joey Gower as the manager of her new hotel at St Kilda. Joey and Adam first met years before and Joey is hopeful of rekindling their brief affair. However, her plans ...

In this fourth book, Olivia and her friends Grace, Will and Jack are in Year 6 at Coolongawong Public School in outback New South Wales and continue to enjoy the wonders of time travel in their magic classroom. They have already spent a year with their awesome teacher, Mr Mac. Early on they discovered that they could have magical adventures back in time by tripping on a creaky floorboard and saying the magic words, discovering history as it was being made in exciting, and sometimes dangero...

Matt, Ben, Nicky and Kris are four friends living in the small town of Coolongawong in New South Wales. They have spent the last two years in Mr Mac's classroom where they discovered that they could have magical adventures back in time by tripping on a creaky floorboard and saying the magic words, discovering history as it was being made in exciting, and sometimes dangerous, adventures.They must now leave the magic classroom behind as they begin high school in Orange. Matt decides ...

Penny Taylor, from London's East End, finds herself part of the struggling Hapless family, living in a caravan park in the Illawarra on the south coast of New South Wales. She is kept busy with three young children, two of whom belong to Dudley Hapless, her present partner and a professional basketball player with the Hawks.Dudley has four brothers, Dick, Rob, Bill and Bruce, and a younger sister named Rosie. Dick is a motor mechanic who seemingly cares only about cars and motor rac...

Kit Markham's world turns upside down when Jack, the boy she always believed she would marry, turns out to be her half-brother. At sixteen, feisty and headstrong, she leaves her home in Melbourne and flees to England. The year is 1855.Though unsure of where life will lead, she is determined to stay away long enough to regain control over her future and leave her feelings for Jack behind.The Crimean War is drawing to a close in Europe and nurses are needed on the hospital ship...

When William Molloy graduates from Harrow in the summer of 1829, he has plans to go to Oxford in the autumn to continue his studies. He is also looking forward to spending time with his father, Jack Molloy. Jack is a captain in the army, one who distinguished himself in the Peninsula Wars under the Duke of Wellington and lately has been serving in Ireland. Jack surprises his son by announcing that he is not only retiring from the services and taking a wife but intends to set sail almost im...

This book is a collation of short stories linked together into a humorous omnibus. I selected as my subject the year we spent in England and the travelling we did in association with this. The result is a collection of stories, 40 chapters in all, with a total of somewhere around 92,000 words.Each chapter is a yarn in itself, with some observations that people planning a trip abroad as well as armchair travellers may enjoy. It is not simply a tourist guide. Each chapter aims at pro...

A group of mates from the Sydney suburb of Botany answer the call from king and country and go away to fight in the first world war. Far from the adventure they imagined, the five years of the conflict bring challenge, fear and loss but also lighter moments and some unexpected romance.The boys shoulder distinctive responsibilities in Gallipoli and France. Boney creeps out under the cover of darkness to rescue helpless souls as an ambulance driver, Ced uses his engineering skills to ...

Stina caught the excitement spreading like wildfire amongst the passengers. The Friedeburg had anchored in Moreton Bay and the long and uneventful voyage to Australia was finally over. It was 1872 and she couldn't wait to go ashore, to feel the earth solid under her feet and to run forever without bumping into someone. To feel her hair flying out behind her and to put her arms around something sure and steadfast like a tree. To have a moment of quiet and uninterrupted solitude, to hear bir...

The Weif is a story of servitude and the struggle for freedom, of the law and its cruel inequities, of the privations and harshness of a rugged new land and of a brother and sister's fragile hold on life during the tumultuous early years of settlement in Australia.Lizzie and Will Darling are banished from their home in County Cavan for youthful crimes and transported to Australia.Lizzie finds her feet in Van Diemens Land as a servant to the genial Fletcher family while Will...