Dark Emu Exposed - Selected Reading List for Amateur History Buffs
One of our readers, John, contacted us asking,
Hi team, I'm on a bit of an Australian history binge at the moment and am keen to learn as much as possible - and read as widely as possible from all perspectives. I'm currently reading a bunch of books from an Indigenous perspective, but have really appreciated your balanced contributions. I'm not sure if you guys have an official 'Australian history reading list' (I should probably have a more thorough look through your website) but I'd love a few recommendations if you have a list somewhere; anything that will paint a more complete picture of our history. Thanks team, appreciate your work and contributions to Australian historicity. John
Over the past year we have amassed a very large library of books, movies and on-line sources during our debunking work on Dark Emu Exposed. John’s excellent enquiry has now prompted us to start a list for our readers of what we have found to be the most important, interesting and controversial books and sources of information for Australian history hobbyists.
We will update this listing as we work through all our sources, so please check from time to time.
General Australian History - A selection of general histories
Hirst, J. - Australian History in 7 Questions, Black Inc, 2014
Blainey, G. - The Story of Australia's People, Volume 1: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia, Penguin Books Australia, 2015
Blainey, G, - The Story of Australia's People, Volume 2: The Rise and Rise of a New Australia, Penguin Books Australia 2016.
Lewis, Robert - The Story of Australia (Penguin and National Museum of Australia, 2017) , Excellent history of Australia with many illustrations suitable for young and old and overseas visitors.
History Books and Journals to get a feel of life in Colonial Australia
Rowcroft, Charles, Life and Adventures of William Thornley in Old Van Diemen’s Land 1817-1820 J.Walch & Sons .
Hawdon, Joseph, The Journal of a Journey from New South Wales to Adelaide in 1838. Georgian House Pub, 1952
Bride, Thomas Francis, Letters from Victorian Pioneers 1898, Lloyd O’Neil Pub. 1983
Curr, E. M., Recollections of Squatting in Victoria (Melb, 1883)
Morrison, Edgar - Frontier Life in the Loddon Protectorate, 1837-1842, Published 1967
Aboriginal Australia
Maddock, K., The Australian Aborigines - A Portrait of Their Society, Pelican Books 1974
Flood, Josephine -The Original Australians: story of the Aboriginal People - 2nd Edition (2019)
Morgan, John, - The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, 1852 (Various editions available)
Interested readers are recommended to buy Dr Gary Presland’s book, First People, if they want a well researched and fascinating description of the lives of the Aboriginal peoples of the Port Phillip region around the time of First Contact in the 1830s and 40s.
Dr Presland has spent over forty years researching the Aboriginal and natural histories of the Melbourne area, unlike some other writers who just seem to ‘make stuff up’ based on little or no real evidence.
Academic Histories of Aboriginal Australia
Windschuttle, K., - The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - Vol I - Van Diemen’s land 1803-1847, Mcleay Press 2002
Windschuttle, K., - The Fabrication of Aboriginal History - Vol III - The Stolen Generations 1881-2002, Mcleay Press 2009
Journals of Australian Explorers
On-line here at Project Gutenberg Page 1 and at Project Gutenberg Page 2
To Be Continued.
Places to buy books on Australian History and Aboriginal Australia
