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Absolutely Revolting

June 1979, no. 11

Martin Smith reviews The Forgotten Valley by Marjory Hutton Neve
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Contents Category: Australian History
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Article Title: Pioneering in Microcosm
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Within three hours motoring of Sydney is a wild and lovely valley of forgotten history, where pioneer settlers sleep in forlornly neglected small cemeteries, or whose headstones mark their resting place on the original land grants. The Macdonald River meanders shallowly through farmlands and past a few scattered cottages; above tower the enclosing mountains bush-clad and rock-strewn; overall there seems to emanate a strangely disturbing restlessness as if the disembodied spirits of the first pioneers still exert an unseen influence in the once life-pulsating Valley.
Book 1 Title: The Forgotten Valley
Book Author: Marjory Hutton Neve
Book 1 Biblio: Library of Australian History, $14.00, 147 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Within three hours motoring of Sydney is a wild and lovely valley of forgotten history, where pioneer settlers sleep in forlornly neglected small cemeteries, or whose headstones mark their resting place on the original land grants. The Macdonald River meanders shallowly through farmlands and past a few scattered cottages; above tower the enclosing mountains bush-clad and rock-strewn; overall there seems to emanate a strangely disturbing restlessness as if the disembodied spirits of the first pioneers still exert an unseen influence in the once life-pulsating Valley.

To explore the Valley, most motorists cross the Hawkesbury River at the western end of Wiseman’s Ferry, taking the Webb’s Creek punt to connect with the Bulga Road to the tiny village of St Albans.

Read more: Martin Smith reviews 'The Forgotten Valley' by Marjory Hutton Neve

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Peter Spearritt reviews The Australian Legend by Russel Ward and The Australian Legend Re-Visited edited by J.B. Hirst
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Contents Category: Australian History
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Article Title: Women, Shortage of in Bush
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I am writing this review in a cafe in the main street of Gympie, a town founded on gold discoveries in 1867. It is 200 kilometres north of Brisbane and seventy kilometres from the coast. Frontier types abound in a town population of 11,000 and in farming communities around. Rough, craggy, sunburnt faces, wizened facial muscles, arms creased by years of hard work and a determined walk. In their everyday habits they exhibit loyalty to friends, a capacity to improvise and a contempt for blacks. And these are the women.

As our feminist historians have pointed out, there are few women in Russel Ward’s The Australian Legend, first published in 1958. Indeed in the index there are only a handful of entries: ‘on goldfields’, ‘prostitution’ or and ‘shortage of, in bush’, the last being the longest entry.
Book 1 Title: The Australian Legend
Book Author: Russel Ward
Book 1 Biblio: Oxford University Press, $19. 95, 336 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 1 Readings Link: www.booktopia.com.au/the-australian-legend-russel-ward/book/9780195502862.html
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I am writing this review in a cafe in the main street of Gympie, a town founded on gold discoveries in 1867. It is 200 kilometres north of Brisbane and seventy kilometres from the coast. Frontier types abound in a town population of 11,000 and in farming communities around. Rough, craggy, sunburnt faces, wizened facial muscles, arms creased by years of hard work and a determined walk. In their everyday habits they exhibit loyalty to friends, a capacity to improvise and a contempt for blacks. And these are the women.

As our feminist historians have pointed out, there are few women in Russel Ward’s The Australian Legend, first published in 1958. Indeed in the index there are only a handful of entries: ‘on goldfields’, ‘prostitution’ or and ‘shortage of, in bush’, the last being the longest entry.

Read more: Peter Spearritt reviews 'The Australian Legend' by Russel Ward and 'The Australian Legend...

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Contents Category: Australian Poetry
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Article Title: Poetry as Necessity
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It is usually true to say that poetry is difficult and criticism easy. In the present case, I am not sure that this is quite so true. What can any critic sensibly say about the present batch of books which range from Bruce Dawe ‘s Collected Poems 1954–1978, Sometimes Gladness, to reprints of minor colonial verse and includes the gentle nature mysticism of John Anderson’s The Blue Gum Smokes a long Cigar, reverently illustrated by Ned Johnson and produced by Rigmarole of the Hours, and the ambitious regionalism of the two books of Hunter Valley Poets, IV and V, edited by Norman Talbot?
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It is usually true to say that poetry is difficult and criticism easy. In the present case, I am not sure that this is quite so true. What can any critic sensibly say about the present batch of books which range from Bruce Dawe’s Collected Poems 1954–1978, Sometimes Gladness, to reprints of minor colonial verse and includes the gentle nature mysticism of John Anderson’s The Blue Gum Smokes a long Cigar, reverently illustrated by Ned Johnson and produced by Rigmarole of the Hours, and the ambitious regionalism of the two books of Hunter Valley Poets, IV and V, edited by Norman Talbot?

 

A Voice from the Country by Louisa Atkinson

Mulini Press, $4.50, 32 pp

The reprints of early poems, Two Early Poems of 1833 by Henry Halloran and On A Movement of Beethoven’s and other poems of 1830’s by George Macdonald together with a collection of nature notes by Louisa Atkinson, an early settler in the Berrima district, all produced neatly and inexpensively by the Mulini Press, Canberra will be of interest to historians and to those who like to read the literature which failed to survive.

Read more: Veronica Brady reviews 'A Voice from the Country' by Louisa Atkinson, 'The Bluegum Smokes a Long...

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Contents Category: Bookends
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Article Title: Bookends | June 1979
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While the art of the ghost writer has a long and honorable history, the court case concerning the extent of Graham Yallop’s responsibility for the book on the recent test series raises a number of general issues apart from the outcome of this particular dispute. At its best, the practice of ghost writing enables the general public to share the experiences of people who have had interesting lives but do not command the verbal skills necessary to constructing a book. Yet the ghost writer may also be the unacknowledged creator of the characters who figure in his work. Few politicians now will risk either the off-the-cuff remark or even the considered epistle, so that the contest of political leadership can degenerate to a trial of speechwriters’ skills. The most proficient comedians are, of course, creatures of their scriptwriters, but they at least exact nothing from us but our laughs. As our sportsmen and women become media figures there is a danger that the players as well as the game will be taken over by the media barons, with the ghost writer acting as puppet master. Fortunately, cricket, a sport which seems able to elicit passions altogether out of proportions with the leisurely pace of the game, has always had players who are as much at home with words as with bat and ball. One of these, Jack Fingleton, was the subject of a review last month; another, Frank Tyson, is a regular contributor to our pages. Their individuality provides some security that the age of the manufactured human is not yet quite triumphant. It would seem, however, that in a world of instant media heroes, publishers have a responsibility to their readers to tell them whether the words they are reading belong to the ostensible author or to an unseen ghost.
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While the art of the ghost writer has a long and honourable history, the court case concerning the extent of Graham Yallop’s responsibility for the book on the recent test series raises a number of general issues apart from the outcome of this particular dispute. At its best, the practice of ghost writing enables the general public to share the experiences of people who have had interesting lives but do not command the verbal skills necessary to constructing a book. Yet the ghost writer may also be the unacknowledged creator of the characters who figure in his work. Few politicians now will risk either the off-the-cuff remark or even the considered epistle, so that the contest of political leadership can degenerate to a trial of speechwriters’ skills. The most proficient comedians are, of course, creatures of their scriptwriters, but they at least exact nothing from us but our laughs. As our sportsmen and women become media figures there is a danger that the players as well as the game will be taken over by the media barons, with the ghost writer acting as puppet master. Fortunately, cricket, a sport which seems able to elicit passions altogether out of proportions with the leisurely pace of the game, has always had players who are as much at home with words as with bat and ball. One of these, Jack Fingleton, was the subject of a review last month; another, Frank Tyson, is a regular contributor to our pages. Their individuality provides some security that the age of the manufactured human is not yet quite triumphant. It would seem, however, that in a world of instant media heroes, publishers have a responsibility to their readers to tell them whether the words they are reading belong to the ostensible author or to an unseen ghost.

Read more: Bookends | June 1979

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Desmond OGrady reviews The Emergence of Political Catholicism in Italy by John N. Molony
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Contents Category: History
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Article Title: Politics of principle
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After Italian troops had invaded the Papal States to establish the nation’s capital in Rome in 1870, Italian Catholics were prohibited from voting in political elections. When this policy began to be relaxed in late 1918, a Sicilian priest, Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), founded the Partitio Popolare Italiano (PPI) which was to be aconfessional but ‘inspired by Catholic principles’. It was the precursor of the Christian Democratic party that has ruled Italy for the past thirty years.
Book 1 Title: The Emergence of Political Catholicism in Italy
Book Author: John N. Molony
Book 1 Biblio: Croom Helm London, 225 pp, $21.60
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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After Italian troops had invaded the Papal States to establish the nation’s capital in Rome in 1870, Italian Catholics were prohibited from voting in political elections. When this policy began to be relaxed in late 1918, a Sicilian priest, Luigi Sturzo (1871–1959), founded the Partitio Popolare Italiano (PPI) which was to be aconfessional but ‘inspired by Catholic principles’. It was the precursor of the Christian Democratic party that has ruled Italy for the past thirty years.

Read more: Desmond O'Grady reviews 'The Emergence of Political Catholicism in Italy' by John N. Molony

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Mimmo Cozzolino reviews Early Sydney Postcards, edited by Bill Tyrrell
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Article Title: Postal diarrhoea
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The last couple of years have seen a revival in the post card – not your glossy view card of opera houses, kangaroos and koalas (I am told popular postcards of our furry friends sell in the millions over a year), but a much more small circulation kind which, because of its limited interest, can’t be sold in normal card outlets. Hence the tear-out, four per page, thirty-two per book, post card extravaganzas sold through normal book channels.
Book 1 Title: Early Sydney Postcards
Book 1 Subtitle: Books 1 to 3
Book Author: Bill Tyrrell
Book 1 Biblio: Doubleday, $4.95 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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The last couple of years have seen a revival in the post card – not your glossy view card of opera houses, kangaroos and koalas (I am told popular postcards of our furry friends sell in the millions over a year), but a much more small circulation kind which, because of its limited interest, can’t be sold in normal card outlets. Hence the tear-out, four per page, thirty-two per book, post card extravaganzas sold through normal book channels.

Read more: Mimmo Cozzolino reviews 'Early Sydney Postcards', edited by Bill Tyrrell

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Janet Coveney reviews Family Walkabouts Near Melbourne, edited by Don Baker
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Contents Category: Nature Writing
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Article Title: Life by walking
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Norm, the major television star of the Life Be In It campaign has encouraged us to seriously consider walking in order to enjoy the landscape around us more often than we generally do. This book sets out to encourage families to try this at some twenty bush, coastal and historic locations in and around Melbourne.
Book 1 Title: Family Walkabouts Near Melbourne
Book Author: Don Baker
Book 1 Biblio: Melbourne Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs, 96 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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Norm, the major television star of the Life Be In It campaign has encouraged us to seriously consider walking in order to enjoy the landscape around us more often than we generally do. This book sets out to encourage families to try this at some twenty bush, coastal and historic locations in and around Melbourne. The walks described vary from gentle strolls of about two kilometres to more difficult and lengthy walks of about sixteen kilometres. Each of the walks described is accompanied by a simple, clearly drawn map showing salient topographic features and roads, footpaths or tracks. A standard format, for each walk, gives information on access, details of the environmental attractions of the area generally, and in some cases specific points to note on the track. At the beginning there is a list of rules on bush safety, and at the end a list of clubs and organisations for those interested in more bushwalking is provided, and some books on environmental topics are listed.

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Margaret Allen reviews Jessie Street: A rewarding but unrewarded life by Peter Sekuless
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Article Title: A disappointing biography
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Jessie Street, the subject of this biography, is one of the women we have ignored. She is an important figure in our history, but few people know much about her life. She was involved in feminist and socialist movements, in the Labor Party, in campaigns for Aboriginal rights and in the movement for world peace – in a long active career which spanned the years 1911–70.
Book 1 Title: Jessie Street
Book 1 Subtitle: A rewarding but unrewarded life
Book Author: Peter Sekuless
Book 1 Biblio: University of Queensland Press, $6.25 pb, 218 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Jessie Street, the subject of this biography, is one of the women we have ignored. She is an important figure in our history, but few people know much about her life. She was involved in feminist and socialist movements, in the Labor Party, in campaigns for Aboriginal rights and in the movement for world peace – in a long active career which spanned the years 1911–70.

Read more: Margaret Allen reviews 'Jessie Street: A rewarding but unrewarded life' by Peter Sekuless

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Geoff Muirdon reviews Labour in Conflict: the 1949 coal strike, edited by Phillip Deery
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Contents Category: Australian History
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Article Title: Striking grievances
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One of the great merits of Phillip Deery’s presentation is the way in which he shows the immediacy of the coal strike: its great significance in changing the lives of the miners and in transforming the political situation in New South Wales. It was a time of great bitterness, in which those who expected the interests of the Labor movement and the Labor Party to converge, considered themselves betrayed. Nor did the swiftness of the Chifley government in moving to crush the miners’ strike garner them any favour in the public’s eyes. The public considered the hardships brought about by the coal strike to be merely the latest in a series of events that seem destined to threaten their comfort and standard of living. The communists were blamed for the strike, probably unjustly, for although there were communists among the miners, the vast majority were non-communists with legitimate grievances against the mining companies.
Book 1 Title: Labour in Conflict
Book 1 Subtitle: The 1949 coal strike
Book Author: Phillip Deery
Book 1 Biblio: Hale & Iremonger, $11.50, $5.50 pb, 106 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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One of the great merits of Phillip Deery’s presentation is the way in which he shows the immediacy of the coal strike: its great significance in changing the lives of the miners and in transforming the political situation in New South Wales. It was a time of great bitterness, in which those who expected the interests of the Labor movement and the Labor Party to converge, considered themselves betrayed. Nor did the swiftness of the Chifley government in moving to crush the miners’ strike garner them any favour in the public’s eyes. The public considered the hardships brought about by the coal strike to be merely the latest in a series of events that seem destined to threaten their comfort and standard of living. The communists were blamed for the strike, probably unjustly, for although there were communists among the miners, the vast majority were non-communists with legitimate grievances against the mining companies.

Read more: Geoff Muirdon reviews 'Labour in Conflict: the 1949 coal strike', edited by Phillip Deery

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Bookshapes - June 1979
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Article Title: Bookshapes - June 1979
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The dustjacket designer Christopher McVinish has given the title of this novel an unforgettable identity, with the figure of a soldier superimposed in red on the second one of 1915, which is in black. It is a powerful image that immediately announces the subject of the novel. Most of what follows is disappointing, and apparently not due to McVinish. 
Book 1 Title: 1915
Book Author: Roger McDonald
Book 1 Biblio: University of Queensland Press
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: A Question of Polish
Book 2 Subtitle: The antique market in Australia
Book 2 Author: Terry Ingram
Book 2 Biblio: Collins, designed by Robin James
Book 2 Cover Small (400 x 600):
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1915

By Roger McDonald.

University of Queensland Press

The dustjacket designer Christopher McVinish has given the title of this novel an unforgettable identity, with the figure of a soldier superimposed in red on the second one of 1915, which is in black. It is a powerful image that immediately announces the subject of the novel. Most of what follows is disappointing, and apparently not due to McVinish. The muscular Plantin Bold Condensed of the jacket is replaced by a pouting, effeminate display face (I couldn’t identify it) on the title page, and for the chapter titles. With a twenty-one-pica measure, a yawning five-and-a-half-pica back margin and a six-pica fore-edge, the text has been teased out to 426 pages – a big book. It may be good publishing, but it is not good design. The book is sewn in thirty-two page sections, which gives it an air of awkwardness and unease. Apart from the jacket, it is in many ways like an Australian novel of thirty years ago. Nevertheless, and because of the jacket, two picas.

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Kay White reviews Champions of the Impossible: A history of the National Council of Women of Victoria 1902–1977 by Ada Norris
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Article Title: Impossible or inevitable?
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One might question the appropriateness of this book’s title. Were women’s groups in the first half of this century championing impossible causes, or were they champions of the inevitable? In other words, to what extent did the organised women’s movement, or first-wave feminists, actively bring about legislative change to improve the position of Australian women, or might these changes have occurred anyway, the inevitable consequences of improved technology enabling women to plan their working lives?
Book 1 Title: Champions of the Impossible
Book 1 Subtitle: A history of the National Council of Women of Victoria 1902–1977
Book Author: Ada Norris
Book 1 Biblio: Hawthorn Press, $12.50, 221 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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One might question the appropriateness of this book’s title. Were women’s groups in the first half of this century championing impossible causes, or were they champions of the inevitable? In other words, to what extent did the organised women’s movement, or first-wave feminists, actively bring about legislative change to improve the position of Australian women, or might these changes have occurred anyway, the inevitable consequences of improved technology enabling women to plan their working lives?

Read more: Kay White reviews 'Champions of the Impossible: A history of the National Council of Women of...

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Clement Semmler reviews Henry Lawson: Favourite verse compiled by Nancy Keesing
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Contents Category: Australian Poetry
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I think it was Judith Wright who once remarked that Lawson as a poet wasn’t important; that he seems, usually to have turned to verse as a journalistic medium or as a weapon for propaganda, and that the few of his better poems were such rather because of the intensity of feeling than through any technical or poetic gift.
Book 1 Title: Henry Lawson
Book 1 Subtitle: Favourite verse
Book Author: Nancy Keesing, illustrated by Walter Stackpool
Book 1 Biblio: Nelson, 182p., illus.
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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I think it was Judith Wright who once remarked that Lawson as a poet wasn’t important; that he seems, usually to have turned to verse as a journalistic medium or as a weapon for propaganda, and that the few of his better poems were such rather because of the intensity of feeling than through any technical or poetic gift.

Nancy Keesing, in a succinct preface to her selection, looks at the matter from another angle. She reminds us that around the turn of this century most Australian readers regarded Henry Lawson as a great poet, noting that his ‘Australian kind’ of popular verse had parallels in the ballads and narrative verse of Kipling, of Robert Service in Canada and of Bret Harte in America. In each case the verse stemmed from man’s battle with a strange and hostile environment.

Read more: Clement Semmler reviews 'Henry Lawson: Favourite verse' compiled by Nancy Keesing

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Phillip Edmonds reviews A Dozen Dopey Yarns: Tales from the pot prohibition by J.J. McRoach
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Article Title: Parodies from a Nihilist
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Custom Highlight Text: This is a very interesting social document. A Dozen Dopey Yarns is not easily pigeonholed – it consists of the ‘writings’ of the self-proclaimed publicist of the Australian Marijuana Party, J.J. McRoach, part comedian, part media aspirant, part evangelist for pot. As such, the reader can have a good laugh, and sociologists can read a gonzo journalist’s view of the drug culture.
Book 1 Title: A Dozen Dopey Yarns: Tales from the pot prohibition
Book Author: J.J. McRoach
Book 1 Biblio: Australian Marijuana Party, $4.95 pb or at Nimbin ½ kilo of macadamia nuts
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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This is a very interesting social document. A Dozen Dopey Yarns is not easily pigeonholed – it consists of the ‘writings’ of the self-proclaimed publicist of the Australian Marijuana Party, J.J. McRoach, part comedian, part media aspirant, part evangelist for pot. As such, the reader can have a good laugh, and sociologists can read a gonzo journalist’s view of the drug culture.

Pot doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book, so there you are. McRoach is (on paper) a very funny man. His prose style shifts between short clipped sentences and rambling descriptions. He isn’t afraid to use images, and his words can make music. His writing is fey and ironic, his stance that of the world-weary post 1960s anti-hero.

A Dozen Dopey Yarns contains ‘new journalist’ sorties into the Australian visit of Hunter S. Thompson; a lively piece called ‘Who Killed Don Mackay’ in which McRoach is a type of Dennis Hopper visiting the evils of racist Griffith; other entertainments and – the highlight – ‘Storming the Senate’, the story behind the Australian Marijuana Party campaign. Throughout, McRoach is centre stage – like Norman Mailer in Armies in the Night. Unlike Mailer he isn’t a bore – he is perhaps an intelligent nihilist heaping parody upon parody.

Read more: Phillip Edmonds reviews 'A Dozen Dopey Yarns: Tales from the pot prohibition' by J.J. McRoach

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David English reviews Passenger by Thomas Keneally
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Article Title: Another Prodigal Returns
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Peter Ward’s stunningly inadequate review of Passenger in the Weekend Australian has at least the virtue that it compels a reply. The first came from Keneally himself, who finished his account of the novel’s favourable reception in other English-speaking countries by saying ‘I just don’t want people to avoid Passenger because of any antipodean twitches. So don’t miss it. Believe me.’
Book 1 Title: Passenger
Book Author: Thomas Keneally
Book 1 Biblio: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $??.?? 241 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Peter Ward’s stunningly inadequate review of Passenger in the Weekend Australian has at least the virtue that it compels a reply. The first came from Keneally himself, who finished his account of the novel’s favourable reception in other English-speaking countries by saying ‘I just don’t want people to avoid Passenger because of any antipodean twitches. So don’t miss it. Believe me.’

To respond to the author’s impious self-confidence with any kind of literal-minded censure would be to miss the point. Keneally is a literary larrikin. Like Halloran in Bring Larks and Heroes, Jimmy Blacksmith, and ‘I’, the foetus-narrator in Passenger, he will hammer away at the indifferent world until finally it reacts. (‘Once a Catholic …’ is a motto Keneally might well consider for his coat of arms.)

Read more: David English reviews 'Passenger by Thomas Keneally

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Jozef Czulak reviews Making your Own Cheese and Other Dairy Products
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Contents Category: Food
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During the past fifty years far-reaching changes have occurred in the manufacture of dairy products in all developed countries. Some of these changes have been dictated by much stricter health and hygiene standards. Other changes were made possible by rapid advances in food engineering.

Today, milk is collected and transported in bulk tankers and the manufacture of dairy products is carried out in very large factories by mechanised and often fully automated processes. There is no more need for the dairy farmer’s wife to set the pans for the cream to rise, or to churn her own butter. She no longer coagulates milk with rennet, or strains the cheese curd through a cloth, setting aside the whey to feed the pig. The art of making dairy foods on the farms or at home has almost died.

But in recent years a strong trend has emerged, particularly among young people, towards ‘natural’ foods. In the case of dairy products this means – milk your own cow or goat. If this is not possible, buy the milk and make your own yoghurt, sour cream or even your own challenge to Stilton! But how?
Book 1 Title: Make your Own Cheese and other dairy products
Book Author: Margaret Barca
Book 1 Biblio: Nelson, $5.95, 128 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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During the past fifty years far-reaching changes have occurred in the manufacture of dairy products in all developed countries. Some of these changes have been dictated by much stricter health and hygiene standards. Other changes were made possible by rapid advances in food engineering.

Read more: Jozef Czulak reviews 'Making your Own Cheese and Other Dairy Products'

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D.E Tribe reviews Sheep Management and Wool Technology by J.B. DArcy and Raising Your Own Sheep by Geoff Nash
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You will never guess from reading these two books that Australia is generally regarded by the rest of the world as the best place to seek information on scientific sheep management and efficient wool production.

For more than thirty years Australian scientists have successfully led the search for a better understanding of the biological workings of a sheep, the structure and growth of wool fibres and of the ecological intricacies of pasture management. During the same period wool technologists have made tremendous strides in the preparation, handling and measurement of wool, while economists have made their own important contributions to the more efficient management of sheep and the more efficient marketing of wool.
Book 1 Title: Sheep Management and Wool Technology
Book Author: By J.B. D’Arcy
Book 1 Biblio: NSW University Press, 324 pp., illus., $12.95, 0989465169
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You will never guess from reading these two books that Australia is generally regarded by the rest of the world as the best place to seek information on scientific sheep management and efficient wool production.

Read more: D.E Tribe reviews 'Sheep Management and Wool Technology' by J.B. D'Arcy and 'Raising Your Own...

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Don Grant reviews Western Landmarks by Ronald P. Wright and Western Heritage by Ray and John Oldham
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‘The feelings aroused in us by our old buildings are difficult to define. But they are none­the-less powerful feelings. There’s something of a dream-like quality in going back into the past; of projecting oneself into history; of identifying oneself with outstanding personalities and events in our national story; or perhaps with the simple and unknown pioneers who patiently laid the foundations of today. We, as heirs to this story, become one with our history. And the old buildings, which are visible reminders of that history, become ours in a very personal way.’
Book 1 Title: Western Landmarks
Book Author: Ronald P. Wright
Book 1 Biblio: University of W.A. Press, 67 pp, illus., $8.95, 0 85564 109 6
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: Western Heritage
Book 2 Author: Ray and John Oldham
Book 2 Biblio: University of W.A. Press, 104 pp., illus., $8. 95, 0 85564 134 7
Book 2 Author Type: Author
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‘The feelings aroused in us by our old buildings are difficult to define. But they are none­the-less powerful feelings. There’s something of a dream-like quality in going back into the past; of projecting oneself into history; of identifying oneself with outstanding personalities and events in our national story; or perhaps with the simple and unknown pioneers who patiently laid the foundations of today. We, as heirs to this story, become one with our history. And the old buildings, which are visible reminders of that history, become ours in a very personal way.’

Developers and most politicians may not agree. I suspect, though, that more Australians than ever before would agree. One reason for this might be the influence of people as sensitive to their heritage as Ray and John Oldham, Ronald Wright and Hubert Smeed, and Jim Paterson.

Read more: Don Grant reviews ' Western Landmarks' by Ronald P. Wright and 'Western Heritage' by Ray and John...

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Gary Catalano reviews Conrad Martens in Queensland: The Frontier Travels of a Colonial Artist by J.G. Steele and A few Thoughts and Paintings by Ted Andrew
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I don’t quite know what to make of J.G. Steele’s dull, parochial catalogue of sketches and watercolours by Conrad Martens. The ‘frontier travels’ of one of our better colonial artists should, you expect, make interesting copy – especially when the artist in question happened to be prolific and the area of his travels the sparsely settled pastoral area of what is now South-eastern Queensland.
Book 1 Title: Conrad Martens in Queensland
Book 1 Subtitle: The Frontier Travels of a Colonial Artist
Book Author: J.G. Steele
Book 1 Biblio: UQP, 150 pp., illus.
Book 2 Title: A few Thoughts and Paintings
Book 2 Author: Ted Andrew
Book 2 Biblio: Patchwork Press, 1978, $2.00 pb
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I don’t quite know what to make of J.G. Steele’s dull, parochial catalogue of sketches and watercolours by Conrad Martens. The ‘frontier travels’ of one of our better colonial artists should, you expect, make interesting copy – especially when the artist in question happened to be prolific and the area of his travels the sparsely settled pastoral area of what is now South-eastern Queensland.

Immediately after his arrival in Australia in 1835, Martens set about exploring Sydney and its environs, and before four months had passed he had visited both the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra in search of suitable landscapes to paint. Prior to his arrival, Martens had succeeded Augustus Earle as artist on the Beagle, and through his contact with Darwin and Fitzroy the picturesque nature of his art was tempered by an interest in scientific accuracy and truth. His well-known watercolours of Sydney Harbour, with their closely observed cloud formations, are the main legacy of his interest.

Read more: Gary Catalano reviews 'Conrad Martens in Queensland: The Frontier Travels of a Colonial Artist' by...

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Julie Marginson reviews Eucalypts for Wood Production by W.E. Hillis and A.G. Brown, Keys to the Families and Genera of Queensland Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta) by H.T. Clifford and Gwen Ludlow and Emigrant Eucalypts by Robert Fyfe Zacharin
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Eucalypts for Wood Production is a highly professional reference work produced by a team of Australian forest scientists most of whom work in state, government forestry services, CSIRO or the Department of Forestry at ANU. It consists of a series of reviews of scientific literature bringing together all that is presently known of the growth habits of eucalypts from the point of view of their management as hardwood crop plants. The editors’ purpose is to draw attention to the potential of eucalypts and thereby to point the way to a national strategy for hardwood production. For those in the industry, its appearance is timely. Both softwood and woodchip production are under attack on several fronts, perhaps the most important of which concern the chemical and physical deterioration of soils associated with the harvesting of tree crops. Improvements in techniques for the profitable management of native hardwood forests may overcome some of these problems, and perhaps alleviate some of the pressure for increasing the acreage (hectareage?) of cleared land at the expense of our prime native forests.
Book 1 Title: Eucalypts for Wood Production
Book Author: W.E. Hillis and A.G. Brown
Book 1 Biblio: CSIRO, 434 pp, $28
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Book 2 Title: Keys to the Families and Genera of Queensland Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta)
Book 2 Author: H.T. Clifford and Gwen Ludlow
Book 2 Biblio: UQP, 202 pp
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Book 3 Title: Emigrant Eucalypts
Book 3 Author: Robert Fyfe Zacharin
Book 3 Biblio: Gum Trees as Exotics, Melbourne UP 1978, 131 pp
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Eucalypts for Wood Production is a highly professional reference work produced by a team of Australian forest scientists most of whom work in state, government forestry services, CSIRO or the Department of Forestry at ANU. It consists of a series of reviews of scientific literature bringing together all that is presently known of the growth habits of eucalypts from the point of view of their management as hardwood crop plants. The editors’ purpose is to draw attention to the potential of eucalypts and thereby to point the way to a national strategy for hardwood production. For those in the industry, its appearance is timely. Both softwood and woodchip production are under attack on several fronts, perhaps the most important of which concern the chemical and physical deterioration of soils associated with the harvesting of tree crops. Improvements in techniques for the profitable management of native hardwood forests may overcome some of these problems, and perhaps alleviate some of the pressure for increasing the acreage (hectareage?) of cleared land at the expense of our prime native forests.

Read more: Julie Marginson reviews 'Eucalypts for Wood Production' by W.E. Hillis and A.G. Brown, 'Keys to...

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Contents Category: Education
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So much has been written about Language One in various English teaching journals that there is little to add. What has been written has usually been critical – often very critical – ranging from ‘not only is it a bad book, but it is misleading’ (Idiom) to ‘buy one for your barbeque. soon’ (Opinion). Language Two will doubtless produce a similar response – from theorists, book reviewers, and the occasional highly competent teacher.
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So much has been written about Language One (Macmillan Australia, 288 pp, $5.50) in various English teaching journals that there is little to add. What has been written has usually been critical – often very critical – ranging from ‘not only is it a bad book, but it is misleading’ (Idiom) to ‘buy one for your barbeque. soon’ (Opinion). Language Two (Macmillan Australia, 240 pp) will doubtless produce a similar response – from theorists, book reviewers, and the occasional highly competent teacher.

The response of most classroom teachers is quite different. Sales figures show this. The two books are selling in tens of thousands, and Language Three and Language Four will soon swell the profits. In spite of the poor language used in the books, the pointlessly difficult questions (e.g. ‘Why do wars occur?’ levelled at Year 8 students), and the unevenly chosen extracts, the books sell incredibly well. They are even exported in substantial quantities to the United Kingdom. My only conclusion is that most classroom teachers appear to disagree with the reviewers.

Read more: Maureen Stewart reviews 4 books

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Walter McVitty reviews 4 books
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Contents Category: Children's Fiction
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Australian children’s literature has its own established heavies, writers whose work is well enough known both here and abroad, frequently in translation, and whose names would be well up in the Public Lending Right cheque lists. Some are so much in demand these days, that the time taken in preparing and giving speeches at conferences of librarians and others leaves them little time for the actual business of writing. However, they continue to dominate; each new work from them is eagerly awaited, read, reviewed and avidly discussed, if not by children then certainly by the growing adult following.
Book 1 Title: Colour of Courage
Book Author: Valerie Thompson
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Australian children’s literature has its own established heavies, writers whose work is well enough known both here and abroad, frequently in translation, and whose names would be well up in the Public Lending Right cheque lists. Some are so much in demand these days, that the time taken in preparing and giving speeches at conferences of librarians and others leaves them little time for the actual business of writing. However, they continue to dominate; each new work from them is eagerly awaited, read, reviewed and avidly discussed, if not by children then certainly by the growing adult following.

The trouble is that there doesn’t seem to be a confident new wave of younger writers advancing to either join, or replace, the established writers who have been around for some time now. That seems rather strange in this brave new ‘golden age’ of children’s literature. Ethel Turner was only twenty-two when her Seven little Australians suddenly appeared back in 1894: it’s hard to imagine anyone of that age and with that talent and staying-power suddenly appearing, full-blown, on the present scene, with books guaranteed to sell in hundreds of thousands and still be doing well eighty-five years hence.

Read more: Walter McVitty reviews 4 books

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Les Taylor reviews Small Business in Australia: Problems and prospects by Johns, Dunlop, and Sheehan
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This book has emanated from the University of Newcastle based upon the much needed research into the plight of Australian small businesses by the staff there. The book is intended to make such research findings available in a digestible form and the publication definitely achieves that goal.
Book 1 Title: Small Business in Australia
Book 1 Subtitle: Problems and prospects
Book Author: B.L. Johns, W.C. Dunlop, and W.J. Sheehan
Book 1 Biblio: George Allen & Unwin, 204 pp, $8.95
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This book has emanated from the University of Newcastle based upon the much needed research into the plight of Australian small businesses by the staff there. The book is intended to make such research findings available in a digestible form and the publication definitely achieves that goal.

Read more: Les Taylor reviews 'Small Business in Australia: Problems and prospects' by Johns, Dunlop, and...

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Louis Green reviews The Rise of the Medici by Dale Kent
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Few families in Italian history have enjoyed a fame greater than the Medici whose name has become inseparably linked with the Renaissance. It is paradoxical, therefore, how little has really been known, until recently, of how Cosimo, the founder of its predominance in Florence, paved the way for the establishment of the power it was to exercise over that city. Nicolai Rubinstein, some years ago in his Government of Florence under the Medici, showed how its ascendancy was maintained through a complex system of electoral controls, but it is only now, with the appearance of Australian historian Dale Kent’s study, The Rise of the Medici, that a clear picture is beginning to emerge of the process by which the Medici first issued from the ranks of the Florentine ruling class to the position of dominance which they gradually consolidated over the six decades following Cosimo’s triumphant return from exile in 1434.
Book 1 Title: The Rise of the Medici
Book 1 Subtitle: Faction in Florence 1426–1434
Book Author: Dale Kent
Book 1 Biblio: Oxford University press, $40 hb, 389 pp
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Few families in Italian history have enjoyed a fame greater than the Medici whose name has become inseparably linked with the Renaissance. It is paradoxical, therefore, how little has really been known, until recently, of how Cosimo, the founder of its predominance in Florence, paved the way for the establishment of the power it was to exercise over that city. Nicolai Rubinstein, some years ago in his Government of Florence under the Medici, showed how its ascendancy was maintained through a complex system of electoral controls, but it is only now, with the appearance of Australian historian Dale Kent’s study, The Rise of the Medici, that a clear picture is beginning to emerge of the process by which the Medici first issued from the ranks of the Florentine ruling class to the position of dominance which they gradually consolidated over the six decades following Cosimo’s triumphant return from exile in 1434.

Read more: Louis Green reviews 'The Rise of the Medici' by Dale Kent

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Contents Category: Classics
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Aeschylus, they say, was killed when an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a smooth, shell-cracking rock, dropped a tortoise on him. Ever since then translators have been dropping translations on the head of his plays with comparably fatal results.
Book 1 Title: Aesychlus
Book 1 Subtitle: The Oresteian trilogy: A theatre version
Book Author: Rush Rehm
Book 1 Biblio: Hawthorn Press, $4.95 pb, 144 pp
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Aeschylus, they say, was killed when an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a smooth, shell-cracking rock, dropped a tortoise on him. Ever since then translators have been dropping translations on the head of his plays with comparably fatal results.

Rush Rehm’s version of The Oresteia (Hawthorn Press, $4.95 pb, 144 pp) brought to the Pram Factory a rarely attempted piece of theatre – the whole of the only surviving trilogy of Greek tragedies, translated not only for the theatre but in and by the theatre. The acting text was influenced by the Director James McCaughey and by the actors involved in the project. In a sense this was the same as working on a brand new play where every line has to be tested for delivery and for action.

Read more: Dennis Pryor reviews 'Aeschylus: The Oresteian trilogy: A theatre version' by Rush Rehm

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Food, Wind, Dreams and Books by Nancy Keesing
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One late afternoon in early summer I went to the launching of Helen Arbib’s Looking at Cooking (Helen Arbib Publications, $3.50, 80 pp) in a beautifully restored and reanimated old house in the Rocks area of Sydney. On the way to Lower Fort Street I’d indulged in one of my favourite meanderings past sentimental landmarks. Among these is a section of Windmill Street, and the Hero of Waterloo Hotel.
Book 1 Title: Some Early Australian Bookmen
Book Author: George Ferguson
Book 1 Biblio: Australian National University Press, $21, 65 pp
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One late afternoon in early summer I went to the launching of Helen Arbib’s Looking at Cooking (Helen Arbib Publications, $3.50, 80 pp) in a beautifully restored and reanimated old house in the Rocks area of Sydney. On the way to Lower Fort Street I’d indulged in one of my favourite meanderings past sentimental landmarks. Among these is a section of Windmill Street, and the Hero of Waterloo Hotel.

Once, at dusk, long before the Hero became a fashionable hostelry, I stopped to listen to an old sailor … he must have been that: his arms were so brown against his striped shirt and he had a veritable peg leg turned from wood and looked like a survivor if not of the battle, at least of the time of Waterloo. Standing in the stone doorway he squeezed an ancient concertina and sang sea chanties. I’ve never seen him again and don’t expect to now, but most of my landmarks are of that order.

Read more: 'Food, Wind, Dreams and Books' by Nancy Keesing

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Marian Turnbull reviews Herbs for Australian Gardens and Kitchens by Shirley Reid
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This is an attractive book with its colourful dust jacket, clear type and layout, and delicate line drawings of individual herbs. The body of the book is an alphabetically arranged treatment of forty-two herbs, giving growing requirements, history, how to harvest and store and uses in medicine, toiletry and cooking. The recipes are original and include such interesting combinations as Pork au Santolina (which I tried and found worthy of a dinner party), and Lavender Beef.
Book 1 Title: Herbs for Australian Gardens and Kitchens
Book Author: Shirley Reid
Book 1 Biblio: Kent Town, $9.95, 152 pp
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This is an attractive book with its colourful dust jacket, clear type and layout, and delicate line drawings of individual herbs. The body of the book is an alphabetically arranged treatment of forty-two herbs, giving growing requirements, history, how to harvest and store and uses in medicine, toiletry and cooking. The recipes are original and include such interesting combinations as Pork au Santolina (which I tried and found worthy of a dinner party), and Lavender Beef.

Read more: Marian Turnbull reviews 'Herbs for Australian Gardens and Kitchens' by Shirley Reid

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Lindsay Gardiner reviews Legacy: The first fifty years by Mark Lyons
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This is the jubilee history of a unique Australian institution. Legacy, initially a club of World War I veterans, aiming to help each other re-establish themselves in civilian life, quickly became an organization concerned to assist the dependents of dead or incapacitated servicemen. Though the age of legatees is rising, the number of elderly widows increasing, and the number of dependent children declining, this remains its raison d’être. Forty-seven Legacy clubs today spend nearly $3,000,000 annually on some 100,000 widows and children in addition, personal assistance – leading youth groups, acting as advisers to bereaved families – continues the paramount part of Legacy’s service.
Book 1 Title: Legacy
Book 1 Subtitle: The first fifty years
Book Author: Mark Lyons
Book 1 Biblio: Lothian, $12.95, 238 pp
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This is the jubilee history of a unique Australian institution. Legacy, initially a club of World War I veterans, aiming to help each other re-establish themselves in civilian life, quickly became an organization concerned to assist the dependents of dead or incapacitated servicemen. Though the age of legatees is rising, the number of elderly widows increasing, and the number of dependent children declining, this remains its raison d’être. Forty-seven Legacy clubs today spend nearly $3,000,000 annually on some 100,000 widows and children in addition, personal assistance – leading youth groups, acting as advisers to bereaved families – continues the paramount part of Legacy’s service.

Read more: Lindsay Gardiner reviews 'Legacy: The first fifty years' by Mark Lyons

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Free Article: No
Contents Category: Memoir
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Article Title: Making Many Rich
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Given the measure of promise in Archbishop Booth’s formative years, what this memoir calls his ‘golden years’ seem sadly unproductive of lasting substance. The outward flourish of his last years in public office, and the great farewell at the Olympic Pool, do not conceal but rather emphasise the feeling the reader has that he did not nourish his diocese at the spiritual depth it needed to face the sixties.
Book 1 Title: Making Many Rich
Book 1 Subtitle: A Memoir of Joseph John Booth
Book Author: A. De Q.
Book 1 Biblio: Church of England Diocese of Melbourne, $8.00 hb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Given the measure of promise in Archbishop Booth’s formative years, what this memoir (Making Many Rich: A Memoir of Joseph John Booth by A. de Q. Robin, Church of England Diocese of Melbourne, $8.00 hb) calls his ‘golden years’ seem sadly unproductive of lasting substance. The outward flourish of his last years in public office, and the great farewell at the Olympic Pool, do not conceal but rather emphasise the feeling the reader has that he did not nourish his diocese at the spiritual depth it needed to face the sixties.

Read more: W. G. Wakefield reviews 'Making Many Rich' by A. de Q. Robin

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Patricia Grimshaw reviews This Sin and Scandal: Australia’s population debate 1891–1911 by Neville Hicks
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Perhaps no other social attitude has changed so markedly in this century as the prevailing public reaction towards the question of the limitation of population growth and the use of birth control devices.
Book 1 Title: This Sin and Scandal
Book 1 Subtitle: Australia’s population debate 1891–1911
Book Author: Neville Hicks
Book 1 Biblio: ANU Press, $12.15, 208 pb
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Perhaps no other social attitude has changed so markedly in this century as the prevailing public reaction towards the question of the limitation of population growth and the use of birth control devices.

In my childhood, the large families of our working-class neighbourhood were subjected to the derision of smug and usually protestant parents of neat, small families who viewed such unrestrained childbearing as evidence of a feckless and undisciplined life style, devoid of proper moral restraint. This decade has seen the advocates of zero population growth and of women’s liberation add their voices to the cause of population control. Yet in the early years of this century such moral condemnation was reserved for those who advocated the use of birth control, in an intellectual climate which saw the prevention of conception as undermining the very basis of Christian marriage and which gloomily viewed a declining birth-rate as evidence of ‘racial decay’ and a threat to the survival of the Anglo-Saxon race on the Australian continent.

Read more: Patricia Grimshaw reviews 'This Sin and Scandal: Australia’s population debate 1891–1911' by...

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I.V. Hansen reviews ‘As Large as Alone’ by Gibson and Murdoch Copeman & ‘Mainly Modern’ by John and Dorothy Colmer
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Contents Category: Language
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Article Title: In need of Intensive Care
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Soon after our Dip.Ed. begins, I solemnly warn my students that, when they go out into schools for their English teaching practice, they will be asked to teach poetry: indeed, in many cases, the poetry they present will be the only poetry those classes will have for the whole year. They smile and even laugh indulgently, and we talk about why teachers wouldn’t want to teach poetry. It’s a pleasant academic point. But when the students come back in late April after some weeks in schools, their eyes are wide and they say, ‘It’s true. We have to teach the poetry!’.
Book 1 Title: As Large as Alone
Book Author: Gibson and Murdoch Copeman
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan, 110p., $4.50, 333 119630
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Book 2 Title: Mainly Modern
Book 2 Author: John and Dorothy Colmer
Book 2 Biblio: Rigby, 420pp., $7.50
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Book 3 Title: Language in Literature
Book 3 Author: Sue Woolfe
Book 3 Biblio: Macmillan, 402p., $8.95, 333 175 581
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Soon after our Dip.Ed. begins, I solemnly warn my students that, when they go out into schools for their English teaching practice, they will be asked to teach poetry: indeed, in many cases, the poetry they present will be the only poetry those classes will have for the whole year. They smile and even laugh indulgently, and we talk about why teachers wouldn’t want to teach poetry. It’s a pleasant academic point. But when the students come back in late April after some weeks in schools, their eyes are wide and they say, ‘It’s true. We have to teach the poetry!’.

Read more: I.V. Hansen reviews ‘As Large as Alone’ by Gibson and Murdoch Copeman & ‘Mainly Modern’ by John...

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W.S. Logan reviews ‘Australia’s First Notable Town, Maldon’ by Grant Blackman and John Larkin
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Contents Category: Architecture
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Five years ago prominent architectural historian, George Tibbits, rated the dearth of books available to guide people’s appreciation of their historical environment as one of the major brakes on the conservation movement in Victoria. Since then a growing number of excellent publications have attempted to redress this weakness, the latest being Grant Blackman and John Larkin’s Maldon. It follows closely on the heels of Burchett’s work on East Melbourne and has a similar format and high quality of production. Blackman’s photographs in black and white and color beautifully capture the town’s flavor and are at their best with the more intimate details of verandah variances, padlocked intimate doors, details and of cemetery headstones. Some of the more panoramic plates might have been more sharply reproduced and it is unfortunate that one or two of the captions are repetitive. Well-chosen historical photographs are interspersed to complement the modern views. The Gill sketches do not portray Maldon itself and will be familiar to readers other goldfield histories. The four David Drape paintings, on the other hand are of early Maldon scenes and one regrets that they were not reproduced in colour.
Book 1 Title: Australia’s First Notable Town, Maldon
Book Author: Grant Blackman and John Larkin
Book 1 Biblio: 1978, 144 p. illus., $14.95
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Five years ago prominent architectural historian, George Tibbits, rated the dearth of books available to guide people’s appreciation of their historical environment as one of the major brakes on the conservation movement in Victoria. Since then a growing number of excellent publications have attempted to redress this weakness, the latest being Grant Blackman and John Larkin’s Maldon. It follows closely on the heels of Burchett’s work on East Melbourne and has a similar format and high quality of production. Blackman’s photographs in black and white and color beautifully capture the town’s flavor and are at their best with the more intimate details of verandah variances, padlocked intimate doors, details and of cemetery headstones. Some of the more panoramic plates might have been more sharply reproduced and it is unfortunate that one or two of the captions are repetitive. Well-chosen historical photographs are interspersed to complement the modern views. The Gill sketches do not portray Maldon itself and will be familiar to readers other goldfield histories. The four David Drape paintings, on the other hand are of early Maldon scenes and one regrets that they were not reproduced in colour.

Read more: W.S. Logan reviews ‘Australia’s First Notable Town, Maldon’ by Grant Blackman and John Larkin

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Derek Holroyde reviews ‘Film Censorship in Australia’ by Ina Bertrand
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Contents Category: Film
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It is difficult to decide whether this well­researched book is an important addition to the media history of Australia, or whether it deserves a place among the chronicles of the country’s moral development, or even as another testament to the differences and divisions that are created by federal systems of governance. Ina Bertrand has diligently collected all the details of lust, licence and legislation that have beset the entertainment industry over the past century and a half. She painstakingly leads the reader through the reasons and ramifications behind the Acts of State and Commonwealth Parlia­ments (starting with the first Public Entertainment Act in New South Wales in 1828) by which successive attempts have been made to regulate how and what the Australian public were allowed to see.
Book 1 Title: Film Censorship in Australia
Book Author: Ina Bertrand
Book 1 Biblio: University of Queensland Press, $17.95 hb, $9.95 pb, 200 pp
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It is difficult to decide whether this well­researched book is an important addition to the media history of Australia, or whether it deserves a place among the chronicles of the country’s moral development, or even as another testament to the differences and divisions that are created by federal systems of governance. Ina Bertrand has diligently collected all the details of lust, licence and legislation that have beset the entertainment industry over the past century and a half. She painstakingly leads the reader through the reasons and ramifications behind the Acts of State and Commonwealth Parlia­ments (starting with the first Public Entertainment Act in New South Wales in 1828) by which successive attempts have been made to regulate how and what the Australian public were allowed to see.

Read more: Derek Holroyde reviews ‘Film Censorship in Australia’ by Ina Bertrand

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R.L. Heathcote reviews ‘Mirrors of the New World’ by J.M. Powell
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Although many studies have documented the movement of Europeans to, and their impact upon, their ‘New World’ of the Americas and Australasia, prior to this book no overview of the Western European perceptions of that New World had appeared. With this book, however, Dr Powell has both provided that overview and suggested how those perceptions need to be considered in more detail in future research into the processes implicit in European settlement of new lands.
Book 1 Title: Mirrors of the New World
Book Author: J.M. Powell
Book 1 Biblio: ANU Press $13.50
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Although many studies have documented the movement of Europeans to, and their impact upon, their ‘New World’ of the Americas and Australasia, prior to this book no overview of the Western European perceptions of that New World had appeared. With this book, however, Dr Powell has both provided that overview and suggested how those perceptions need to be considered in more detail in future research into the processes implicit in European settlement of new lands.

Concern for the role of environmental perception (the knowledge of and attitudes to the habitat of man) in explaining the human imprint on the global environment has become an integral part of geographical research since the mid-1960s. Dr Powell’s earlier works (Public Lands of Australia Felix, 1970; Yeomen and Bureaucrats, 1974; Environmental Management in Australia 1788- 1914, 1976) had developed that concern in the context of Australian land settlement. Now he has broadened his research to examine one major aspect of that concern – the role of images and image-makers in nineteenth century European migrations to North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Read more: R.L. Heathcote reviews ‘Mirrors of the New World’ by J.M. Powell

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NBC $5000 Awards for Australian Literature

Entries for these Awards close on 31 July 1979. Entry forms and copies of the rules are available from the National Book Council, 71 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000.

This year the Awards will be presented in Canberra on Friday 12 October at the Awards Dinner, which will also mark the official opening of Australian Book Week. The Awards will be presented by His Excellency the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen.

Read more: NBC Report

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Text notes – June 1979
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An excellent introduction to the senior English student’s experience of literature. It deals with complex matters in a comparatively simple manner The book examines particular passages of literary writing in the light of major critical concepts. Diction, tone, figurative language, irony, bathos – it’s all there, with apt questions and comments. A worthy publication.
Book 1 Title: Literature and Awareness
Book Author: Tom Gibbons
Book 1 Biblio: Edward Arnold (Australia), $5.50
Book 1 Author Type: Author
Book 2 Title: Essay Method and English Expression
Book 2 Author: Douglas Bate
Book 2 Biblio: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $7.95
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Book 3 Title: Basic English Exercises
Book 3 Author: E. H. Edwards
Book 3 Biblio: Macmillan Australia, $3.95
Book 3 Author Type: Author
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Literature and Awareness

by Tom Gibbons

Edward Arnold (Australia), $5.50

An excellent introduction to the senior English student’s experience of literature. It deals with complex matters in a comparatively simple manner The book examines particular passages of literary writing in the light of major critical concepts. Diction, tone, figurative language, irony, bathos – it’s all there, with apt questions and comments. A worthy publication.

Read more: Text notes – June 1979

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‘Resurrections’ by Stephen Murray-Smith
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Contents Category: Australian History
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Most of these books are Oztalgia reprints of the more respectable and desirable kind, but three are original works, two of them by senior men of letters of the kind that any country is fortunate to have a corps d’elite of: I mean of course Howard and Pearl. Cyril Pearl, in Five Men Vanished, relates in 128 pages the facts relating to the disappearance of five men at Bermagui in 1880. One was the well-connected Lamont Young, 29-years-old and a government geological surveyor. Another was Maximilian Schneider, a young German assistant to Young, whose foreign accent and facial scar appear to have been enough to make him a prime suspect. The other three were fishermen. It was their boat which was found, stove in, on a beach some nine miles north of Bermagui. The boat contained articles belonging to Young and Schneider, though there was no reason why these two should have been in the boat.
Book 1 Title: Australian Pioneers and Reminiscences 1849-1894
Book Author: Nehemiah Bartley
Book 1 Biblio: John Ferguson, Sydney, in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society, $15.95, 0 909134 11 1
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Book 2 Title: The Vine…and how to make Wine from Victorian Grapes
Book 2 Author: John Belperroud and David Louis Pettavel
Book 2 Biblio: Casuarina Press, PO Box 137, Surrey Hills, Victoria, $9.95
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Book 3 Title: Sketches of New South Wales
Book 3 Author: William Romaine Govett
Book 3 Biblio: Gaston Renard, Publisher, Melbourne, $85, 0 9599899 1 9
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Most of these books are Oztalgia reprints of the more respectable and desirable kind, but three are original works, two of them by senior men of letters of the kind that any country is fortunate to have a corps d’elite of: I mean of course Howard and Pearl. Cyril Pearl, in Five Men Vanished, relates in 128 pages the facts relating to the disappearance of five men at Bermagui in 1880. One was the well-connected Lamont Young, 29-years-old and a government geological surveyor. Another was Maximilian Schneider, a young German assistant to Young, whose foreign accent and facial scar appear to have been enough to make him a prime suspect. The other three were fishermen. It was their boat which was found, stove in, on a beach some nine miles north of Bermagui. The boat contained articles belonging to Young and Schneider, though there was no reason why these two should have been in the boat.

Read more: ‘Resurrections’ by Stephen Murray-Smith

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