We are traveling to Australia and New Zealand in December and I would like to read some history of the area. Could you please recommend some books to me?

you might want to look for this post -

"Novels set in Australia or New Zealand for me to read before/during my trip?"

I did a search for 'Bryson' and it came up. There's a lot of posts covered there.

Not sure whether you're after straight history or more a novels approach. have a look and then ask for more if don't get what you want.

Yes, Bill Bryson's "Down Under" is a good read and very insightful.

Are we really like that??

For non-fiction - one book that I really enjoyed when I came upon it by accident is " The Tyranny of Distance" by Geoffrey Blainey. A good read and so many ideas, factors, scenarios that were completely new to me - as were the flora, fuana, art, etc. etc.

You should know, maybe, that Australian history is a contentious subject!!

And Professor Blainey's views would not meet with approval everywhere. But it is seriously informative for an outsider. I would also recommend "A Fortunate Life" by A B Facey - one of the most amazing books I have ever read and a must if you are serious about learning something about a culture that doesn't seem so foreign because of the shared language but .. is, yes, same, same but different.

Any compendium you can find about the early explorers - I'd read that too, especially if you are venturing away from the coast.

Novels - David Malouf's "The Great World; Patrick White's "The Tree of Man". So many - as Lancefan says there's a list lurking here already for you to check out.

Mustn't forget NZ - less obvious stuff there in the written word (loads of good movies) but you could try a book I was given as a birthday present last year - "Colour" by Rose Tremain. Enjoyable.

Happy travels.

For a good read on one part of Australian history, I can highly recommend a new book by Kate Grenville called "The Secret River" which is short-listed for the Booker Prize.
While Bill Bryson's book is a humorous look at some aspects of Australian history and life, please don't rely on it as being 100% true. He visited Canberra while I was living there and writes that he could not find any decent restaurants. Well, he stopped to stay at the first hotel he found (in the business district, which closes down at night) and relied on restaurant recommendations from a group of skateboarding teenagers he found nearby. Had he done a minimum of research (or at least asked at the front desk of his hotel), he could have taken a short trip to the areas of Kingston or Manuka for an excellent meal (and a more positive opinion of Canberra!)

The Fatal Shore, by Bob Hughes

Cold Beer and Crocodiles, by Roff Smith

Also, see if you cand find to buy or rent the TV series Hughes did on Australia a few years ago - don't recall the name, but it was 5 or 6 episodes on modern Australian culture and society

Wow! I won't have time to read and watch everything, but I'm sure going to try! Keep the ideas coming, folks!! Thanks!

Also, Tim Flannery's "The Birth of Sydney" and the diary of Watkin Tench which is an eye-witness account of a First Fleeter.

The "fatal shore" is fatally boring.Also beware of anything by patrick white.

For nz try "the bone people" and "once were warriors"

i recently read this book 'women on the rocks - a tale of two convicts', which while fictional was a good read and gave a feel of what it msut have been like to be a convict back in those days, particularly female. very easy to read.

http://www.dymocks.com.au/dynamic/Fu...SBN=0702233625

here's another list that's got a lot of well known and well read books. http://www.australed.iinet.net.au/au...t_fiction.html

Must disagree with johhj about Patrick White. Now seriously unfashionable - and not easy to read. But both the aforesaid are true because people don't read literature any more - they just read airport pulp - something do to with the shortening of attention spans to which we are all subject. Internet - love it to bits - to blame.

I do think, though, that just once in a while you need to take yourself in hand and concentrate as you used to do on a real literary work of art. Make the effort.

The Fatal Shore s a must for an understanding of Australia. For NZ Michael Kings History of New Zealand is on my to do list.

Hi Party,

For sheer entertainment and bursts of laughter to annoy your fellow passengers on the plane, Bill Bryson's, "A Sunburned Coountry".

I must agree with John about "A Fatal Shore" -- the beginning was really fascinating to me where it told of what the political & social climate was like in England at the time, the crimes (most of them very petty) people committed that landed them on a convict ship, and the conditions of the ship...and then I had to force myself to keep going, and still haven't finished (at this point I'd probably have to start over)!

Another book I enjoyed is "Blue Latitudes" by Tony Horowitz (also "One For the Road on the Outback - hysterically funny). It's not all about Australia -- he's tracing the route of Captain Cook - there's some very enteraining moments as well as history.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

Note that the two Bryson books mentioned -- "Down Under" and "In A Sunburned Country" -- are the same book. The title varies depending on what country you buy it in. It is outstanding in every way; yes, he may have missed a restaurant or two in Canberra but he got a great snapshot of the country.<br>
I'm currently struggling through Frank Welch's "Australia: A new history of the great southern land", which is OK in bits but hard going overall: he's very big on what Lord Heargherargher said to Sir Fooferaugh that made the Prime Minister so upset, the parliamentary and constitutional history, but not very good or even interested in what life was like.

"The Fatal Shore" is beautifully written and very sensational, but is a bit too focused on convict hardship.

Mystery and detective stories can often reveal a great deal about the current life of cities. If you want something a bit easier on the brain, try the excellent Murray Whelan series by Shane Maloney, set in Melbourne, and the very good Inspector Scobie series by Jon Cleary set in Sydney.

Tony Horwitz's "One For the Road" is an even funnier travelogue than Bryson's through the Outback.

If you are going to Tasmania, I strongly recommend "In Tasmania" by Peter Shakespeare. Part history, part personal journey, it uncovers many layers of the past through the appalling antics of his ancestor and the echoes that still resound there today. History is always more interesting when it moves beyond names and dates (see Welch) into the realm of the personal, where you learn along with the author. Good stuff.

I am curious as to what folks think of Mutant Message From Down Under? as representing reality?
Thanks, Clarkstia

I am heading to Sydney in a week and have also been looking for reading material....I have heard good things about "Voices of the first Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime" by Robert Lawlor....which I hope to pick up in Sydney...Will also be looking for "Famous Australians: Douglas Mawson, John Flynn, Daisy Bates & Nellie Melba" by Faith Linton....and "Mawson"....about Douglas Mawson's life story.

Try
Kangaroo Dreaming-Edward Kanze.
Carnivorous Nights: On the trail of the Tasmanian Tiger-Margaret Mittelbach.
Tracks-Robyn Davidson.
also recommend the above books by Roff Smith, Tony Horwitz, much better than Bryson.

also -Film
Storm Boy- someone on this forum recommended this great short film, and I luckily found it in our local library in Canada.

MJTOO - hope you find that Famous Australians book! And like I said before anything about the early explorers - hey - there's 'The Dig Tree' - a relatively recent best seller.

But if you are interested in Douglas Mawson, and will be in Adelaide - then don't miss the amazing special exhibition about his life at the Museum there (next door to the Art Gallery of SA). That's if it's still on. And there was also recently a photo exhibition at the Nat Maritime Musuem in Sydney showcasing Antarctic Photography (don't know if that's still on either). Point of message - check out what's on in the city you are in - many great exhibitions and many are also free.

I agree that Robert Hughes' "The Fatal Shore" is overly focused on the convicts' suffering. Not that it didn't happen, but judging from what I've dug up about my six convict ancestors, in most cases the reality was more mundane and on balance positive. They all did their time, kept their heads down, learned some useful skills during their period of servitute (effectively, as little as four years) and became what would have been impossible in the old country - landowners, respected neighbours and much-loved parents and grandparents in the peaceful and tolerant Hawkesbury Valley outside Sydney.

Well, all except for the Irish servant girl who was nicked for theft at 17, participated in the infamous 1827 riot at the Female Convict Depot in Cork and the only slightly less riotous voyage of the "Elizabeth". (Extract from the report of a subsequent naval enquiry: “...regulations were not followed for the purpose of preventing improper intercourse between the women convicts and the crew of the ship”. Apparently Kit never lost her affection for the bottle, and remained known to the local gendarmes for many a long year.)

Much of the "Thorn Birds" takes place in Australia, as is true for some of the other novels by Colleen McCullough. Also "Alice on the Line" if you are going to Alice Springs.