Hesperian Press

‘Mad Jack’. The murder of Paul Conde at Yampi Sound and the Lost Silver Mine of Hadji Ibrahim.

Peter J. Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-902-2, (New, 2021), A4, illustrated, 55 pages, 180 grams, $30.00*

The companion volume to Yampi Frontier. Murder and mayhem on the Kimberley coast and the search for the lost silver mine. Beachcombers and pastoralists were viciously murdered by the savage tribesmen and the best of the bush police tracked the killers in untrodden country to bring them to justice.

The Macedonians in Australia

by Peter Hill

This very readable book by Professor Peter Hill tells of the origins and life of the Macedonians in Australia. 

It is an important book for all Macedonians and their Australian children, as well as schools and libraries.

THE AUTHOR

Peter Hill is married to a Macedonian Australian.  He majored in Russian and Germanic Studies at the University of Melbourne and after post graduate work in Slavonic Studies, German Literature and General Linguistics at the University of Hamburg he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1972.  He is Professor of Slavonic Studies at the University of Hamburg.

Madness in the Mulga

The murder of Bert Livingstone at Mt Seabrook. 

by Peter J. Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-755-4, (New, 2019), A5, 28pp, 45 grams, $15.00*

The Magic Snake

by Billy Miller Linklater

ISBN 978-0-85905-371-6, (1946 R 2013), 96pp, illustrated, 205g

$26.00* + POST

Billy was the author of Gather No Moss, a NT classic. He wrote of the Territory when it was young. These are his collected legends of the Warramunga tribe among whom he lived and worked for many years. A forgotten classic of the North. 

Claude de Bernales

The Magnificent Miner

ISBN 0 85905 200 1, (1996 new), Soft Cover, 340pp, illustrated, 450grams

$35.00 + POST

Claude de Bernales was undoubtedly controversial but in Western Australia his mining activities helped keep the State afloat. 

Colebatch details his origins, rise, fall and legacy.

The Maguire Mystery

by WC Charnley

ISBN 978-0-85905-008-1, (2010, R), 22pp, illust, SC, B5, 50grams

$10.00* + POST

A stirring story of Northern Australia. Seeking mother-o'-pearl shell and a rich tin deposit, three adventurous young men set out in a small ketch for the lonely Kimberley coast.

They had been warned as to the treachery of the wild blacks, and took every precaution against attack. Nevertheless, disaster overtook them. Their lugger was found sailing herself, with blood upon her deck, but despite all the efforts of the police, the exact fate of the luckless trio remains in doubt.

Major the Outlaw

by WC Charnley

ISBN 978-0-85905-003-6, (2010, R), 23pp, illust, SC, B5, 50grams

$10.00* + POST

"Major" was a fine type of Australian black-fellow, and might have lived and died as a useful member of society but for the deep-laid vengeance of "a woman scorned." Plotting with Machiavellian cunning, she first induced him to commit murder and then helped the police to hunt him down. Finally, when a bullet had put an end to his ill-starred career, she proceeded, like a dutiful wife, to mourn his loss!

Making Pain Pay

The 'Jail Journal' of J. M. Drew

Ed by Andrew Gill.

ISBN 978-0-85905-585-7, (New 2015), Soft Cover, A4, illustrated, 87pages, 255 grams,

$25.00* + POST

In 1895, J M Drew, editor of the Geraldton Express was sued for libel by the local medical officer. While the libel trial was in progress, Drew committed a contempt of court and was gaoled for two weeks in the Perth Waterside Lockup.

Man From Arltunga

Walter Smith - Australian Bushman

by R.G. Kimber

ISBN 0 85905 225 7, (1996 reprint of 1986 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 193pp, illustrated, 250grams

$25.00 + POST

The biography of Walter Smith (1893-1990), drover, prospector, dogger and bushman, one of the identities of the Northern Territory.

Managing a Million Square Miles

by Ron Hutchinson

ISBN 978-0-85905-650-2, (New, 2016), 240 x 160, well illustrated, indexed, 357 pages, 850 grams

$50.00 + POST

To be launched at the old Treasury, Tuesday 25 October 2016.

With a history spanning 187 years, the authority now called Landgate, has seen momentous changes. From the days of survey expeditions, to world-leading innovations in online mapping and the delivery of land information, Ron Hutchinson has given us a fascinating and insightful history of Western Australia's first government department.

Map and Gazetteer of Western Australia.

Prepared by Celene Bridge.

ISBN 978-0-85905-555-0, (2013, R), A3, 17 pages colour map, 33 pages text. grams $50.00*

The 1969 1:2,250,000 map modified with 1:250,000 sheets marked and the gazetteer included.

Some 7000 localities marked. This is the best map available of WA. An essential research tool.

Marrinup: A cage in the bush. No. 16 POW Camp. Kaefig im wald. Una gabbia nella boscaglia.

By Ernie Polis.

ISBN 978-0-85905-926-8, (New, 2020), A4, 252 pages, heavily illustrated, indexed, French flap soft cover,  1.1kg $60.00* [Postage for a single book will be $12.75. Express $16.25. Multiple or bulk orders will be quoted for before payment.]

The detailed story of the No 16 POW Camp at Marrinup, near Dwellingup, which held thousands of Italian and German POW during WWII. The full history of the camp from 1943 to 1946 together with much personal detail on both the prisoners and the guards with statistics and anecdotes.

A book such as this is to be welcomed as the camp has remained little known to the wider public. The Harvey civilian internment camp being relatively well known.

One of the many highlights are the photos taken by a German POW on his secret Leica camera. The book is the result of some decades of dedicated work by Ernie Polis, an officer in the Australian Army Reserve and in civilian life a cartographer and ranger. Ernie’s parents were Latvian displaced persons after WWII, his background creating a great interest in military history. He is now retired and is president of the Historic and Antique Firearm Research Association.

Mary Lindsay and the Defence of Jurien Bay 1928-1941

by Bob Sheppard 

ISBN 978-0-85905-824-7, (2020 New), A5 Soft Cover, 27pp, illustrated, 60 grams, $10.00

In Book 2 in the Mid-West at War Series, Bob Sheppard explores Mrs Mary Linday's call for the development of Jurien Bay as a naval port as Australia faces emerging aggression from Germany and Japan.

Massacre!

Peter J Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-734-9, (New, 2018), A4, 53pp, illustrated, 170 grams

$30.00* + POST

The brutal shootings and bludgeoning to death of many Aboriginal men, women and children at Laverton in 1910 shocked the nation. It was the culmination of a series of attacks and murders but the trial resulted in the acquittal of the perpetrators.

Mates and Gold

Reminiscences of the early Westralian Goldfields.

1890-1896

by N.K. Sligo

ISBN 0 85905 195 1, (1995 reprint of 1980 edition with new material), Soft Cover, 259pp, illustrated, 340grams

$30.00 + POST

The greatest of the Western Australian 1890’s gold rush reminiscences.

Mates and Gold tells of bush life in the Western Australian desert, dangerous journeys and lonely deaths by typhoid, thirst, murder, spearing and retributional massacre.  Vast new goldfields, gold won - and lost.  Of bush mates and memories of a life long past.

Mates and Gold is an insight into the fortitude and humour with which the early prospectors faced the harshness of the goldfields.  It is one of the few books on the great 1890s goldrush written by one of the original prospectors.

This is a great read.

Matrimony at Marble Bar 

ISBN 978-0-85905- 693-9, (R, 2017), A5, $10.00*

A mesalliance in the mulga.

May They Rest in Peace

by Jane Hall

ISBN 978-0-85905-550-5, (New 2012), 160x240, 62pp, illust., 130 grams

$22.00* + POST

The old Fremantle Lunatic Asylum has a colourful history and the stones tell their story but inside the spectral wraiths of the poor demented are still active. Jane Hall has collected the history and the stories of this strange and haunted place. Appropriately it is now an Arts Centre.  

McLean Bros & Rigg Ltd, General hardware electrical and machinery merchants, Catalogue No. 3 1950.

ISBN 978-1-875778-36-2, (1950, R 2024) A4, 340 pages, French flaps, highly illustrated, 980 grams, $80.00*

This magnificent catalogue with thousands of illustrations of items will become as essential reference for collectors of a wide range of Australiana items, dealers, ebayers, and those involved in all manner of heritage studies.

A lucky find in the crowded shelves of a junk shop. The only known copy now reproduced for the benefit of all.

My father worked for McLeans as a shipping clerk before the war and was helpfully advised by the Customs officer son of Pilmer of Northern Patrol in customs clearances. Nearby was his father’s business, Bridge Built Tinware & Sheetmetal Work based in Wellington Street, Perth, and started in his Carlisle backyard during the Great Depression. Wartime work was on the submarine fleet at Fremantle. Later it became Bridge and Wilson, which again later became Jason Industries at Welshpool. The plant in the old Government Munitions Factory grew into the large factories in Pilbara Street. This unfortunately was stripped of people, land and assets by the banksters and a flourishing business employing hundreds of West Australians was thrown to the wolves, if not of Wall Street, their close relatives, and just as savage. 

The pages of this wonderful catalogue display the Model Maid and Cinderella kitchen products as well as the Fasta bath heater, all produced by Jason Industries. My youthful visits to the anodising and plating operations and forced work on the metal spinning lathes (to keep an eye on me after a thwarted adventure) are still fresh in my mind. I admired the work of the toolmakers, the 100 ton press and the hard working machine operators. 

The destruction of so much of Australian industry by the Whitlam and following Labor and other governments, with the Lima Agreement, globalism and free trade have been a disaster for the nation. Some of the blood sucking scum of the underworld became billionaires and with others cannibalised the assets of a once highly productive and creative nation. We all know who they are but their faecal families may object to being named.

This process, ongoing in the Western world, has delivered us into the hands of the crass commercialism of China and elsewhere. Our once almost self-sufficient nation has been ‘consumerised’. There is currently no way out of this mess. It is going to get bad, very, very bad.

The once most advanced political economy in the world has been reduced to beggar status and we are now just a colony of international capital. Our so-called allies (All Lies) are merely those closer to our dinner plate, with us as the dinner. The swamps of the ruling political parties must be drained and the poison of those beholden to alien interests defanged.

While few understand the processes of destruction that have gone on we all have some nostalgia for the past and this is expressed in the growing interest in the relics of our past. Collector’s, historical societies, and vintage shops flourish, albeit as adjuncts to pawn shops, a sign of our sad times.  

The republication of this magnificent catalogue will enable collectors and dealers to identify and place the significance of items. It will bring to light many lost memories. Perhaps it will also act as a reviver for those whose autarkic ideas may regenerate industry and a natural nationalism.   

McLean Brothers and Rigg’s Perth operations were serially cannibalised and eventually closed sometime in the early 2000s.  

McLennan's Way

The Bush Ballads of Lex McLennan 1909 - 1969

edited by Jean Green and James Fitzgerald

ISBN 0 85905 201 X, (1994 new), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 82pp, 125grams

$22.00 + POST

The poetry of one of Australia’s best balladists.

Meekatharra

"End of the Earth"

by P.R. Heydon

ISBN 0 85905 196 X (1994 new), Hard Cover, 438 pp, illustrated, 660grams

$60.00  + POST

Meekatharra - "End of the Earth"  celebrates the centenary of Meekatharra and covers the period 1894 to 1994.  It tells of the gold discoveries and the ups and downs of gold mining.  Being the railhead for the vast hinterland to the north and the northwest, stories abound of transport by donkey and camel teams; of the early motor vehicles; and the present day road trains.