Hesperian Press

A Shepherd of the Plains. The life of William Bashford

by F W Gunning

ISBN 978-0-85905-787-5, (2020), A5, 11 pages, $10.00*

Bushman, pastoralist, of Moora, Dandaragan.

Saddle in the Kitchen

by Enga Smith

ISBN 0 85905 191 9, (1993 reprint of 1979 edition), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 91pp, illustrated, 150grams

$22.00 + POST

Saddle in the Kitchen will appeal to people of all ages who value a happy home and the simple pleasures of country life.

Enga Smith's 'Memories of a Childhood' evokes an atmosphere of love and tranquillity, while filling the days with a sense of wonder and adventure.

Sailor & Commando

by A.E. (Ted) JONES

ISBN 0 85905 253 2, (1998 new), Soft Cover, 182pp, illustrated, 245grams

$22.00 + POST

As a young Royal Australian Navy sailor, one of just one hundred and twenty, Ted Jones trained at a secret base in New South Wales to become a Special Service Beach Commando.  He saw active service in the Netherlands East Indies and Borneo with the Australian and American armies.

Sailor and Commando is a story of extraordinary training and active service.  It includes a nominal roll of personnel. 

Sailor, Soldier, Surgeon

The life of George W. Barber

by Simon Doyle and Jenny Mills

ISBN 978-0-85905-823-0, (2020 New), Soft Cover, French flaps, 240pp, illustrated, 590grams, $40.00* + Post

An exceptional medical officer during World War I, George Walter Barber had a wayfaring early life. As a teenager he worked as a merchant marine on a clipper serving the England – Australia route. He went on to study medicine and after graduating became a P&O ship doctor sailing the England-India-China route. He met his wife Jess on his final voyage, and they moved to the Kalgoorlie goldfields at the commencement of the goldrush. At the outbreak of the war he was mobilised to assess the fitness of Western Australian recruits. In 1916 he became Assistant Director Medical Services of the 4th Australian Division and in 1918 was appointed Deputy Director Medical Services, Australian Corps. He ran a venereal disease hospital in Egypt and served on a number of gruesome hospital ships during the Gallipoli campaign. As DDMS he was in charge of medical administration for the Australian troops in France and through his Standing Orders enacted a number of significant innovations which reflected the shift towards mobile warfare. He then went on to becomeDirector General Medical Services in Australia after the war (1925-1934).

Available direct from the author (MOB: 0405 956 679, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )

Sailors In Slouch Hats

From a Sea of Memories

Recorded by the Men of 42 Australian Landing Craft Company RAE, AIF

edited by W.W. Rice

ISBN 0 85905 299 0, (2001 reprint of 1999 edition), Soft Cover, 140mm x 215mm, 168pp, illustrated, 245grams

$22.00 + POST

This story of the men of 42 Australian Landing Craft Company is a stirring and fitting tribute to the magnificent soldiers who risked and often gave their lives in Operation Porton in 1945. In the true tradition of the ANZACs these are stories of ordinary men who did extraordinary things. Operating in the very real danger of battle, the men of 42 ALC faced unpredictable seas and sustained enemy fire to land, support and then evacuate the soldiers of a company of 31/51 Bn. These stories are told with a frankness and affection in aw way that only a soldier can. 'Sailors in Slouch Hats' is a superb collection of personal experiences of mateship, ingenuity, larrikinism and bravery. We are fortunate to have this record of some of our heroes.

Lieutenant General P.J. Cosgrove, AC, MC

Chief of Army

Samuel Grau Hubbe and the South Australia to Western Australia Stock Route Expedition 1895-1896.

SG Hubbe. Edited by Andrew Guy Peake.
(WAEDP series.)

ISBN 978-0-85905-680-9, (New, 2018), casebound, section sewn, illustrated, maps, indexed, 296 pages, .855 kg

$95.00* + POST

Contains the official and private journals of Hubbe and John Mahar. Biographical notes on the men of the expedition.

This is a very small run which will ensure future scarcity.

Sand and Stone

Pt 1. Colonists and Convicts

Pt 2. Pastoralists and Prospectors

By Kevin Moran

ISBN 978-0-85905-572-7, ISBN 978-0-85905-573-4, (2000, 2013), A4, 730 pp, Soft cover, illustrated, indexed, 2kg.

$140.00*. + POST

Sold only as a set.

A magnificent overview of the colony from a police perspective. Contains a great deal not available elsewhere.

Sand and Stone – Cattle and Conflict

by Kevin Moran

ISBN 978-0- 85905-449-2, (2010, new), illust., A4, 436pp, 2Vols, 1.2kg

$80.00* + POST

NB. This book is in two parts, of 232 and 204 pages respectively. The parts will not be sold separately. Matching numbers are printed and there will not be any extras available for replacements if a volume is loaned and lost

Sand and Stone continues to chronicle the story of the violent hidden history of Western Australia’s Kimberley Region in this two part volume ‘Cattle and Conflict’.

Sand and Stone – Foreign Footprints

Police in the Kimberley 1880–1890s

by  Kevin Moran

ISBN 978‑0‑85905‑447‑8, (2009), fully indexed, A4, Soft Cover, 271pp, 735grams

$40.00*+ POST

The author retired from the West Australian Police Force as Superintendent in 1994 when acting Chief Superintendent Perth Region.

Following on from his earlier Sand and Stone volumes, the author has systematically combed the police files to uncover these Kimberley stories. They are absolutely essential for all interested in the area. This is the first of 3 volumes on the Kimberley.

Sand and Stone – Pigeon

by Kevin Moran (With a Foreword by Peter Conole)

ISBN 978-0-85905-448-5, (2011, New), 126pp, illustrated, 360grams

$30.00* + POST

This is Pigeon's story and of those who suffered his reign of terror and the men who hunted him.

It is without academe historians' fashionable fabrications and elaborations, which in recent times have dissembled the past to rewrite history as they would like it, not as it was. They attack any historical writing that questions their spurious promotion of utopian aboriginal culture. They will not welcome this work.

Sand and Sun. Two gold-hunting expeditions with camels in the dry lands of Central Australia.

Michael Terry.

ISBN 978-0-85905-996-1, 294 pages, 160 x 240, illustrated, French flap cover, indexed, 680 grams, $70.00.

Michael Terry led many expeditions into Central Australia in the 1920s and 1930s. His companions were the best bushmen of their time. His books have become rare and expensive. This is the second volume we have reprinted of his famous desert travels.

Savagery on the Swan River Settlement:

The aboriginal murder cycle and the 1839 killing of Sarah Cook

Collected and edited by Peter J Bridge

ISBN 978-0-85905-246-7, (New 2010), A4, 36pp, 135grams

$22.00* + POST

This report draws on material that has been suppressed or has been ‘disappeared’.

Savagery on the Swan River Settlement has two primary threads.

That the government and media of 1839 suppressed the publication of the true facts of several vicious murders of Europeans to protect the native tribes from the retaliation of concerned settlers.

Save the Union

ed. by John C. Rice.

ISBN 978-0-85905-853-7, (c1920 R 2020), 160x240, illustrated, 80 pages, 150 grams, $30.00*

A very small reprint of a Franklin G. Rice’s memoir of life, and death, in the Michigan Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War of 1862-65.

Scales of the Serpent. Kimberley Pearlshell in Aboriginal Australia. 
by Kim Akerman. 

ISBN 978-0-85905-987-9, (New, 2023), A4, Fully colour illustrated, french flap soft cover, section sewn, 190 pages, 750 grams, $110.00* Postage

A magnificent volume presenting a detailed study of the Aboriginal use of pearl shell in both the traditional and contemporary worlds. This is already a classic. The jaded and faux art of the desert drawings is already rolling over with the freshness and strictly limited availability of pearl shell art.

To obtain the trade price, and hence for resale, there is a minimum order of 3 books. If a single copy is purchased then there is no trade discount. This does not apply to our regular trade customers. Postage will be advised on ordering. Do not pay until you receive our invoice.

Scarlet Pillows - an Australian nurse's tale of long ago

by Mrs Arthur H. Garnsey

ISBN 978-0-85905-039-5, (2009 reprint), 151pp, illustrated, 220grams

$22.00 + POST

Mrs Garnsey was a nurse at Coolgardie amidst the rush and typhoid. A bush classic

The Scarlet Stain

Harlots, Harridans and Hellholes of Old Kalgoorlie

edited by Sheryl Milentis and Peter J. Bridge

ISBN 085905 350 4, (2004 new), Soft Cover, 188 pages, illustrated, 255grams

$30.00 + POST

By the late 1890s the Kalgoorlie brothels had become a byword for degradation and the most flagrant in the English-speaking world.

The Sun newspaper campaigned against the outrageous displays by the prostitutes, the activities of their bludgers and the vested interests of the landlords and sly grog traders.

Sealed Souls:  

A Colonial history of Sealing and Whaling on the southern coasts of Australasia from 1798 to 1852.

By John Robertson.

$80.00 plus P&H. Available online at

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or www.sealedsouls.com

A 540 page lavishly illustrated book with adapted depictions of locations, boats, scenes, people, and maps that will take the reader there, plus a glossary that’s extensive enough to captivate and refer to in years to come.

A new West Australian publication (2022) that pulls the curtain on the darker side of colonial life. Sealed Souls is an historic journey back to colonial times when every player was in it for themselves, from top bureaucrats to lowly escaped convicts, and everyone in between. It was a time when displaced people were forcibly transported half a world away, only to displace others.

This fascinating book chronicles many of the sordid activities of these expired convicts who, as intrepid sealers and sailors, cut a frugal existence on the wild frontiers of Bass Strait, New Zealand, southern Australia and across the broader South Pacific, in many cases surviving with the help of Aboriginal women they had either abducted or bartered for. In 1831, many of these daring characters were chased out of Bass Strait by the Protector of Aborigines and headed westward, island-hopping to the fledgling settlement of Albany in Western Australia where they resurrected a new life hidden behind aliases and deceit.

A thought-provoking history about the beginnings of a young colony on the other side of the world.
 

This is not a Hesperian Press book but it is highly reccommended to anyone interested in WA beginnings. 

Separate Pathways

by R. Rolfe

ISBN 978-9-85905-552-9, (New, 2013), A4, 102pp, 300grams

$30.00* + POST

A study examining the attempts at assimilation of Aborigines within the larger white society in Western Australia during the administration of A.O. Neville.

Shark Repellant

by George Herbert Payne.

ISBN 978-0-85905-815-5, (1947 R 2020), A4, 13 pages, 80 grams, $15.00*

RAAF research at Shark Bay in WWII with descriptions of the area and a biography of GH Payne.

She's No Milkmaid

by Rica Erickson & Rona Hayward

ISBN 0 85905 152 8, (1991 new), Soft Cover, 96pp, illustrated, 178grams

$10.00 + POST

The biography of Dame Raigh Roe, President of the Country Womans Association, and the story of her fight for the rural women of Australia and the World.