'Voyager's bow has been detached from her stern' was the laconic phone message left for the RAN's public relations officer' on the night of 10 February 1964.During naval exercises off the coast at Jervis Bay, the destroyer HMAS Voyager inexplicably turned towards the RAN Flagship, HMAS Melbourne, and steamed under the mighty carrier,s bows. The impact cut Voyager in two with 82 of her complement losing their lives in Australia's worst peacetime naval disaster.Why did this h...

The complete and authoritative account of the sinking of the HMAS Sydney, and the recent finding of her wreck.On 19 November 1941, the pride of the Australian Navy, the light cruiser Sydney, fought a close-quarters battle with the German armed raider HSK Kormoran off Carnarvon on the West Australian coast. Both ships sank – and not one of the 645 men on board the Sydney survived.Was Sydney’s captain guilty of negligence b...

‘Given the importance of ability, judgment, leadership and discipline to the effective performance of any military force, the nation faces a serious problem when the public begin to have doubts and politicians start to distrust, the capability of the defence force and the reliability of its members.’Tom Frame, one of Australia’s most respected military affairs analysts, reveals the background to the war crimes allegedly committed by Australian Special Forces in Afg...

No-one in the Australian government or Army could have predicted that in the 25 years following the end of the Cold War Army personnel would be deployed to Rwanda, Cambodia, Somalia, Bougainville, East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Solomon Islands. In a constructive critique of the modern Australian Army, 'On Ops' examines the massive transformation that has taken place since troops were deployed to East Timor 1999. After decades of inactivity and the 'long peace' of the 1970s ...

Charles Darwin liked and loathed Australia. The father of evolution paid the continent a flying visit during in 1836, and was glad to put the place behind him. Yet Australia's astonishing wildlife influenced him deeply, and his revolutionary theories still resonate profoundly in Australian society. Two hundred years after Darwin's birth, at a time when evolutionary theory is facing challenges from those who believe in intelligent design, award-winning writer and Anglican bishop Tom Frame e...

When Harold Holt disappeared while swimming off Victoria's Cheviot Beach just before Christmas 1967, Australia was given one of its great and enduring mysteries. The death of Australia's seventeenth prime minister has remained part of popular imagination ever since.Harold Holt's death had both immediate and long-term consequences for the Australian nation. Not only did it lose a prime minister active in the rejuvenation of its social life and domestic policy, it also lost a key adv...

Winner Australian Christian Book of the Year 2010In this challenging and provocative book, Tom Frame, one of Australia's best-known writers on religion and society, examines diminishing theological belief and declining denominational affiliation. He argues that Australia has never been a very religious nation but that few Australians have deliberately rejected belief – most simply can't see why they need to be bothered with religion at all. He contends that vehemen...

Since 1967 more than 25,000 students have graduated from UNSW after studying at Duntroon, HMAS Creswell, the Australian Defence Force Academy. Tom Frame examines the productive 50-year partnership between UNSW and the Australian Defence Force.In a candid exploration of the highs and lows of the longest educational partnership in Australian history, Frame produces an insider's account that explains the need for tertiary education that emerged during the Vietnam conflict and...

'A masterpiece of analysis of the politics of transformative change.' — Otago Daily TimesIn the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre on 28 April 1996 – when a gunman murdered 35 people and injured another 23 at a popular Tasmanian tourist attraction – John Howard, a conservative prime minister who had been in office for just six weeks, surprised his colleagues and startled the nation by moving swiftly to transform Australia's lax firearm laws. The Nationa...

Few periods in Australian political history have generated more controversy than 2001–2004.Trials and Transformations examines the Howard Government's electoral revival in 2001, the collapse of HIH Insurance and Ansett Airlines, and the MV Tampa and 'children overboard' affairs as well as the military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Frank Bongiorno, Simon Crean, Philip Ruddock, John Howard and others also consider the escalation of the history wars, pol...

The Liberal-National Party Coalition was elected to office on 2 March 1996 and continued in power until 3 December 2007 making John Howard the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister. This book is the final in a four-volume series examining the four Howard Governments.Contributors to each of these volumes are asked to focus critically on the Coalition's policies and performance to reveal the Howard Government's shortcomings and failures. The aim of each of...

Helping neighbours and partners stabilise their political systems and work towards peace and security is a core activity for the modern Australian Defence Force.The Long Road analyses the successes and failures of ADF's 'train, advise, assist' missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, South Vietnam and Uganda. With a diverse array of contributions from media commentators Chris Masters and Ian McPhedran, politicians Kevin Andrews an...